Today's new spirituality and religion includes Jesus, but he is not the Jesus of Scripture. He is another Jesus who is appreciated by mystics, Gnostics and all the world’s religions. He is accepted as a prophet a great teacher, an even an enlightened spiritual master.
By the liberals he is an ideal man who had some important things to say about God. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that He needs to be made into something everyone can accept and get along with. He needs to be lowered to be in reach of modern man.
Why all the various opinion of who Jesus is? Why is there confusion even among those who carry a bible?
Paul wrote to the Church in 2 Cor. 11:3 "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted-- you may well put up with it. (you will have to endure it, or you wear it beautifully, and some do).
It is clear that Paul said Another Jesus is being preached, but what did Paul mean by “another Jesus?”
Some have a pragmatic approach to a pragmatic Jesus. Since he works, it doesn’t matter who he really is just as long as he is called Jesus. He can be an angel, a perfect man or some divine creature that we may all become. He can even be savior but not the Lord (almighty).
Paul’s phrase of another Jesus was to warn the church not to be deceived. The name is the same, it is the name Jesus from the Bible, but it is not the authentic Jesus of the Bible. He is different, having some similarities but not the same in his nature. Through this Jesus you can be promised things that the real one never promised. You can think more highly of yourself, you can have power and abilities far beyond mortal men.
With this other Jesus comes a different Spirit and it affects the gospel as it becomes another Gospel. Alterations of the Christian message have always been with us from the beginning of the church, but they have never enjoyed the immense popularity that it does today. Iglesia ni Christo Jehovah’s Witnesses , Mormons numerous others come along and say they have the truth and the real Jesus, but they make him out to be something than the Scriptures say He is not.If you miss Jesus being God you have missed it all. Because you can be self deceived into thinking you know the real Jesus and this is what Paul is concerned about.
There are people that can go to Church almost their whole life and have not hear the gospel nor heard who Jesus really is. They can carry a bible and be convinced they are doing is what Jesus asked them to do. In John 6:28 the Pharisees asked, “What shall we do that we may work the work of God?” Jesus replied, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
This is more than heed his words but here Jesus is asking them to have faith in him as they would the Father. Jesus further explains this authority that he has. In Jn.8:42 “I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have I come of myself but He sent me.” The words “sent forth” imply that the Son already existed in heaven before He was sent.
This means He preexisted, that He came from God, not Mary as His source of being. His humanness came from Mary in time, but not his deity. If one looks at how the word “sent “ is applied to Christ, it involves two different persons. The one sending and the one sent. Isaiah 9:6 “A child is born, and the Son is given” The child is his humanity which came the way all men do through a mother. The Son is given because He always existed. He did not become the Son of God by birth, He did became the son of man through the virgin conception.
This is more than heed his words but here Jesus is asking them to have faith in him as they would the Father. Jesus further explains this authority that he has. In Jn.8:42 “I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have I come of myself but He sent me.” The words “sent forth” imply that the Son already existed in heaven before He was sent.
This means He preexisted, that He came from God, not Mary as His source of being. His humanness came from Mary in time, but not his deity. If one looks at how the word “sent “ is applied to Christ, it involves two different persons. The one sending and the one sent. Isaiah 9:6 “A child is born, and the Son is given” The child is his humanity which came the way all men do through a mother. The Son is given because He always existed. He did not become the Son of God by birth, He did became the son of man through the virgin conception.
Jn.6:33: “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Jesus refers himself to the manna that sustained Israel through the wilderness, in contrast Jesus is the bread of life who will give life to everyone. John 6:38 Jesus states, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of HIM WHO SENT ME.” As the Son, He came from heaven, the Son, not the Father nor the spirit.
Jesus further states in Jn.7:29 “I am from Him and He has sent Me.” This explains Jn.1:18 that no man has seen the Father , where at a certain point in time Christ left his habitation with the Father and became flesh. Jn.8:23 “You are from beneath, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world.” Jesus is and has made it perfectly clear that his origin is not from earth. But he also gives a more specific location of where he came from. Jn.8:42: “I proceeded forth and came from God.”
Jn.3:31: “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth.”
Jesus has already established He is from heaven and came to earth, He also says God has sent Him. Since he is not a man or angel coming from heaven who is He?
Paul writes in 1 Cor.15:47: “the first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second man is the Lord from heaven.” Here again shows the origin of the Son and His coming from above.
1 Jn.4:14: “That the Father sent the Son as the Savior of the world.” Angels are not Saviors, nor can an ordinary man save mankind from our sins. The Scripture is emphatic on this point: God alone is Savior, that he is Lord of the universe. Yet the scripture makes it plain it is the Son who is savior (Titus 2:13).
David who was moved by the Spirit of God said in Ps.110:1 “the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” Jesus quotes this Scripture in Lk.20:42 and asks the Pharisees “therefore how does David in the Spirit call him Lord. If David then calls him Lord how is he then his son?” The Pharisees knew this to be a messianic psalm so they did not answer. Neither do anti-Trinitarians have an answer for this today!
Here we have two persons called Lord, Jesus Identifies the second Lord that David called his Lord, as his Son. So Jesus identifies Himself as both the Lord and the Son. Does this not make the Son Yahweh?
Christ is Lord of all or He is not Lord AT ALL.
The term Son of God refers to His true and proper deity, being the Son from all eternity. Throughout the New Testament when Jesus often uses the term the Son of Man for Himself it was in reference to showing His authority He had on earth as a man. As a man He’s able to forgive sins, (Mk.2) to execute judgment, to resurrect, He even called himself the Lord of the Sabbath. “For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”(Mt.12:8). A human is not the one who made the Sabbath, nor rules over it.
In the New Testament there are two Greek words that are used for “Son”. For those who have experienced the new birth are called Sons of God by an adoption (Jn.1:12) the Greek word is teknon ( Rom.8:14-15, 19:23, Gal. 4:5, Eph.1:5).
We find that this word for “Son” is never used for Jesus, instead the Greek word huios is used. This word is exclusively applied to Jesus as the Son, which refers to his position of nature. It signifies a relationship to his Father. It does not mean origin but is an expression of nature. When Jesus is called the “only begotten Son” it means He is the unique one of a kind, no other is like Him, He alone has that nature and position toward the Father, he alone has the Fathers nature.
We find that this word for “Son” is never used for Jesus, instead the Greek word huios is used. This word is exclusively applied to Jesus as the Son, which refers to his position of nature. It signifies a relationship to his Father. It does not mean origin but is an expression of nature. When Jesus is called the “only begotten Son” it means He is the unique one of a kind, no other is like Him, He alone has that nature and position toward the Father, he alone has the Fathers nature.
To have a true confession we need to confess Jesus is Lord with the correct meaning, that He is God. We need to acknowledge him for who He really is, not just repeat what the bible says. Anyone can call him the Son of God, as the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses do. Its what it really means that counts.
Mt. 10:32-33 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” We must acknowledge the real Jesus to be accepted by the Father In Jn.8:54: “Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing: it is my Father that honors me.” Jn.5:23: “All must honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
If you withhold honor from the Son then you do so to the Father. To deny the same honor to the Jesus as you would the Father, is to deny honor to both. Both deserve the same reverence, obedience, and worship. If the Son were only human, this would not be Biblically possible. To honor a human as one honor’s God the Father would be nothing short of idolatry.
If you withhold honor from the Son then you do so to the Father. To deny the same honor to the Jesus as you would the Father, is to deny honor to both. Both deserve the same reverence, obedience, and worship. If the Son were only human, this would not be Biblically possible. To honor a human as one honor’s God the Father would be nothing short of idolatry.
Christianity is about the glory of God in Christ. Christ not only lives in his teachings and in the people who believe in his word by faith, but he is seated at the right hand of the most high. No angel or saint ever coming close to this exalted position.
Oswald Sanders explains, “If Jesus is not God, then there is no Christianity, and we who worship Him are nothing more than idolaters. Conversely, if He is God, those who say he was merely a good man, or even the best of men, are blasphemers. More serious still, if He is not God, then He is a blasphemer in the fullest sense of the word. If He is not God, He is not even good.
In Isa. 45:5-6: The true God proclaims “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.” Isa.44:6: “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and His redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”
In Isa.41:4 the Lord says He is the first and last. Isa.44:6 clarifies it further, “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And His Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.” The Lord and His redeemer are together in this declaration and Scripture makes it clear that the first and the last is God. Again in Isa.48:12: “Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last.” In Rev.1:8 Jesus says of himself, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,” says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty.”
The Greek phrase that precedes the almighty [ho on kai ho en kai ho erchomenos] “the one being and the one that was and the one coming, i.e. the Eternal.” The title alpha and omega means he is the beginner and end of all things. The alpha signifies he is eternal, He pre-existed and is before all things as in Jn.1:2 “He was in the beginning” (Col.1:15-17) with God. To be called the Omega means he controls the end, He is the Father of eternity (Isa.9:6) the source of all.
As the Alpha and Omega He began all things and will complete them, in Him all things consist. Throughout the Revelation the word “was”, is in reference to Christ pointing back to his death. Rev.1:18 says of Jesus “I am He who lives and was dead, and behold I Am alive forever more.” Rev.2:8 affirms the first and the last as one “who was dead and came back to life.” The same is mentioned in Rev.4:8-9 “who was and is and is to come.” This phrase through the book correlates to this fact. Rev.22:12 tells us the one who is coming is the alpha and omega. Rev.1:17-18 shows John fell at the feet of “the first and last,” as the one “who lives and was dead and is alive forever more.”
The Greek phrase that precedes the almighty [ho on kai ho en kai ho erchomenos] “the one being and the one that was and the one coming, i.e. the Eternal.” The title alpha and omega means he is the beginner and end of all things. The alpha signifies he is eternal, He pre-existed and is before all things as in Jn.1:2 “He was in the beginning” (Col.1:15-17) with God. To be called the Omega means he controls the end, He is the Father of eternity (Isa.9:6) the source of all.
As the Alpha and Omega He began all things and will complete them, in Him all things consist. Throughout the Revelation the word “was”, is in reference to Christ pointing back to his death. Rev.1:18 says of Jesus “I am He who lives and was dead, and behold I Am alive forever more.” Rev.2:8 affirms the first and the last as one “who was dead and came back to life.” The same is mentioned in Rev.4:8-9 “who was and is and is to come.” This phrase through the book correlates to this fact. Rev.22:12 tells us the one who is coming is the alpha and omega. Rev.1:17-18 shows John fell at the feet of “the first and last,” as the one “who lives and was dead and is alive forever more.”
If one believes the Father is God then certainly there is no alternative but to believe the Son is also. Otherwise they must conclude that the Father is not the first or last either. The one being that is God, (unified) is the first and the last.
Christ cannot be Savior unless he is Lord (Yahweh), the Son of God.
Rom. 10:8-10 “But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (a quote from Deut 30:14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.)
“that is, the word of faith which we preach” (as Paul stated faith comes from hearing the word of God) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
The confession of the mouth, comes after the belief of the heart; “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” That word of faith is the gospel proclaimed by the apostles and us today.
Here Paul make sit clear we are to confess Jesus as the Lord our external profession of the mouth corresponds with our internal agreement of a sincere heart with faith. As Paul writes Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. By our declaration we agree with what God about our lost condition, our sin and our need of a Savior; about the necessity of a change of heart, the born again (of the spirit) experience. We acknowledge Jesus as Lord, having the right to rule over our lives, because he died for our sin and rose again.
The confession of the mouth, comes after the belief of the heart; “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” That word of faith is the gospel proclaimed by the apostles and us today.
Here Paul make sit clear we are to confess Jesus as the Lord our external profession of the mouth corresponds with our internal agreement of a sincere heart with faith. As Paul writes Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. By our declaration we agree with what God about our lost condition, our sin and our need of a Savior; about the necessity of a change of heart, the born again (of the spirit) experience. We acknowledge Jesus as Lord, having the right to rule over our lives, because he died for our sin and rose again.
In Rom.10: 13: we find Paul quoting Joel 2:32 and applying it to Jesus “for whoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” The name Jesus, meaning “Yahweh is salvation.” Paul applies Lord (Yahweh) to the person of Christ. Jews always called on God to be saved and delivered. Paul as a Jew called Christ Lord not only as a theologian, but also as a worshipper of God. By this Paul presents Jesus as THE GOD of the Old Testament, Yahweh.
Believing in Christ, is to believe in God. To call on the name of the Lord Jesus is the same as to call on the Lord himself. The word "name" is repeatedly used in this manner. This is why people in cults cannot be saved, they do not acknowledge Him for who He is, LORD.
We find God the Father bestowed on Jesus the name above all names (Phil. 2:9); this couldn’t be just the name of Jesus that he received at his incarnation. When the Son came in the form of a man He humbled Himself, what is called His Humiliation. After He rose from the dead, He was exalted and all authority in heaven and in Earth was given (back) to Him (Mt.28:18-20- Phil.2:5-8) by His Father.
It is by this name every knee should bow to, to the glory of the Father (Phil.2:10). It is at his exaltation that He is given the title of Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 2:34-36 Peter proclaims that Jesus now sits at the right hand of God, And that God (the Father) has exalted him (and proclaimed Him) to be both Lord and Christ. Now at His coronation He is given the title of Lord with His name,” the LORD Jesus Christ”, As he has the name above all name (Acts 4:12) which shows His nature and his rank above all men and angels and His authority ruling over all. In Acts 10:36 the Apostles presented him as “Lord of All”, this new name is based on Him being the sovereign, being superior to all in both nature and position. It signifies His rulership on Earth and in Heaven. This also makes it clear that the Son is God, just as the Father is God.
It is by this name every knee should bow to, to the glory of the Father (Phil.2:10). It is at his exaltation that He is given the title of Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 2:34-36 Peter proclaims that Jesus now sits at the right hand of God, And that God (the Father) has exalted him (and proclaimed Him) to be both Lord and Christ. Now at His coronation He is given the title of Lord with His name,” the LORD Jesus Christ”, As he has the name above all name (Acts 4:12) which shows His nature and his rank above all men and angels and His authority ruling over all. In Acts 10:36 the Apostles presented him as “Lord of All”, this new name is based on Him being the sovereign, being superior to all in both nature and position. It signifies His rulership on Earth and in Heaven. This also makes it clear that the Son is God, just as the Father is God.
Christ is Lord of all or He is not Lord AT ALL.
Can you confess this? Take the simple test to know if you are a Christian like the Bible teaches, can you say from the heart He is Lord meaning He is God, as the Son of God? Now ask yourself is he Lord of your life are you owned by him, bought with the precious blood of the savior.
If you believe the testimony of the Scriptures believe and accept Him today for your forgiveness of Sins, there is no other way.Let Us Reason
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