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Why is Jesus Christ Deity?
by Robert Schmid

The divinity of Jesus Christ has been, affirmed, denied and debated ever since the day He was born 2000 years ago. The change from the Old Testament monotheistic understanding of God, to a God in heaven and one on earth, was traumatic for many, and unacceptable, even to this day, to the Jewish religious leadership and community. In addition, there have been and still are to this day, both individuals and groups, who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ. Some affirm His divinity, but deny that He is God, an oxymoron.

The question, who is Jesus, was first asked by Jesus Himself when He asked his disciples: “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” They said to Him, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He then became more specific and personal when He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter, under the inspiration of God the Father and the confirmation of Jesus, gave the correct and complete answer, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

This answer could have and should have been the end to the question, “Who is Jesus?” But it was not! Why not? “Because the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made.” In the Garden of Eden there was the tree of life, representing God, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, representing Satan. God is always truth. Satan is always a mixture of truth and falsehood, which is syncretism, that God hates.

As we know, Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of Satan who presented them with a mixture of truth and lies, and they, down to you and me, thereby became the begotten children of their spiritual father – Satan.

4000 years later, in the fullness of time, the Word of God BECAME the Son of God, by being born of the wife of God, Mary, and was named Jesus, by God His Father. When Jesus was 30 years old, He was baptized by John the Baptist, not because He needed to repent of sin, but to be an example to mankind that they needed to repent of sin and receive God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, and thereby reject Satan’s begettal, and become the begotten children of God. God the Father expressed His approval by visibly showing the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending upon Jesus, and audibly speaking that: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

After His temptation by, and victory over Satan, Jesus raised up the true Church of God on the day of Pentecost. Shortly thereafter, Satan laid the groundwork for a counterfeit church in competition to the Church of God. The true Church of God, after an initial growth period, became the persecuted “little flock,” scattered throughout the world, lost historically, whereas the false Roman Catholic Church continued to grow, to eventually engulf the whole world. This false church became a mixture of church and state, and most every doctrine about God and Jesus Christ became a mixture of Babylonish and Biblical teachings, the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - syncretism.

For three and one half years, Jesus was the suffering servant of God, while preaching about repentance of sin, and the coming Kingdom of God. His claim of divinity (by stating that He was the Son of God) was rejected, and eventually He was crucified by both Jews and Gentiles. He was buried for three days and three nights, as the only sign given that He is the true Messiah. He rose on the third day, according to the scriptures, when He was resurrected by His Father, and now sits at the right hand of God in heaven as our High Priest.

Before we go any further, let’s summarize the life of Jesus Christ and address some misconceptions that are the cause of the (false) teaching that Jesus existed before He was born of His parents, God and Mary. There are four distinct stages to the existence of Jesus, and not recognizing them, and using them interchangeably, becomes the cause of the false “pre-existence Christology.”

1. From all eternity, and for 4000 years (Old Testament), there was ONE God, Yahweh Elohim, who created all, through and by His WORD. God SPOKE, and it was (nothing more and nothing less) (John 1:1).
2. Then, in the fullness of time (New Testament), the WORD of God, BECAME the SON of God, named Jesus, and for 9 month Jesus was the BEGOTTEN SON of God (sired by God), and the Son of man (carried by Mary) (John 1:14).
3. Then, for the next 33 years, Jesus was a BORN human being, and a BEGOTTEN God being (this is the same condition as that of any true Christian. After all, Jesus was and is our example in all things) (Matt 1:18-25).
4. Then, after His resurrection, for 40 days and into all eternity, Jesus was (born again) and is now a BORN God being (that is the goal and purpose of life, of every true Christian) (Matt 28:3-6).

Considering these four stages, let’s ask some questions:

Did Jesus exist from all eternity? Yes and No!
Yes, Jesus existed from all eternity as the Word of God.
No, Jesus did not exist from all eternity as Jesus, the Son of God.

Was Jesus a second God (being) with His own will? Yes and No!
Yes, as the begotten Son of God, Jesus was a second God (being) with His own will.
No, as the Word of God, Jesus was not a second God (being) with His own will.

Did Jesus share God’s glory before the world was made? Yes and No!
Yes, Jesus, as the Word of God, shared God’s glory before the world was made.
No, Jesus, as the Son of God, did not share God’s glory before the world was made.

Was Jesus God while on earth for 33 years? Yes and No!
Yes, Jesus was (a) God (being) because He was a begotten son of God.
No, Jesus was not God (the Father) who was and is in heaven

Was Jesus able to sin and or die? Yes and No!
Yes, as the born son of man, and the begotten son of God, He was able to sin and die.
No, as the born Son of God He was not, and is not able to sin or die.

We can see from these examples that we can not indiscriminately make statements about Jesus without full consideration of what stage in His existence we are speaking of.

The question about the divinity of Jesus Christ was hotly debated during the first three centuries and reached its climax with the Council of Nicaea (325) to counter the teachings of Arius, a presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt who taught that the Word was not eternal nor generated of the Father, but made out of nothing; and though it was before the world was, yet it was a thing made, a created thing. Eventually, a council of Egyptian bishops excommunicated Arius and the Council of Nicaea defined the dogma of the Divinity of Christ by issuing The Nicene Creed which states:

We believe…..in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.

Here then we find Satan’s influence that established a Christology, that became known as the Trinity (Godhead) doctrine, that was then carried by the Roman Catholic Church, and later the Protestant Churches, throughout the world.

The Creed immediately raises the question; what does it mean to be “eternally begotten of the Father?” Well, the purpose of this statement was to counter Arius and his teaching that Jesus was created by God, which would make him a creature and not a divine being as God is divine. And so they con-cocted up the idea of Jesus being “twice begotten,” the first time in eternity (undefined) and the second time 2000 years ago, which was defined in the Second Anathema of the Second Council of Constantinople (553) as:

If anyone does not confess that God the Word was twice begotten, the first before all time from the Father, non-temporal and bodiless, the other in the last days when he came down from the heavens and was incarnate by the holy, glorious, God-bearer, ever-virgin Mary, and born of her, let him be anathema.

In their effort to defend the divinity of Jesus, they created (under the influence of Satan) the Trinity doctrine, with its mythological idea of pre-existence, that demolished and turned into a mystery the true nature of God, and prevented a correct understanding of Jesus BECOMING the true Son of God 2000 years ago.

Therefore, the primary Christian religions, Catholicism / Protestantism, etc., all profess the divinity of Jesus Christ, but Satan’s way, which is a mixture of right and wrong. This then is the cause of all the confusion that exists about the most important question that man is able to ask: Who and What is God? A fundamental doctrine that affects every other doctrine either in a right or wrong direction.

Yes, most Christian denominations believe and teach that Jesus is divine. However, the question that needs to be asked is: Why is Jesus Christ DEITY? Is He, as Catholicism claims, divine because He pre-existed His own birth or, is a member of a so-called “trinity,” “twinity” or “godhead?” Such a belief and teaching is (still) partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of right and wrong, which is syncretism, that God hates.

Why then is Jesus Christ Deity – a God Being? Jesus is (a) God because:

1. He is the (once) begotten and (twice) born Son of God.
2. He is the living Word of God.
3. He is the express image of His Father.
4. He defeated Satan with His Word and with His sacrificial death.
5. He was and is without sin.
6. He forgave sin.
7. He performed miracles.
8. He died and rose from the dead.
9. He was and is worthy of worship.
10. He has been given ALL power in heaven and in earth.

Jesus Christ is our example in ALL things, and the most important example He left us with is how to become (a) God (Being), a born Son of God. If Jesus would have literally pre-existed His own birth, as a co-equal, second God, He would not and could not have been our example, for we, you and I or anybody else, did not pre-exist our own birth. “Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” We are truly without excuse, for the process of procreation, i.e., the coming into existence of NEW life, is known and experienced by ALL.

Why WAS Jesus Christ Deity? Because He WAS the begotten Son of Deity!
Why IS Jesus Christ Deity? Because He IS the born Son of Deity!

And yes, if the Spirit of God dwells in you, then you are (also) a begotten Son of God, which makes you a “divine being.” God the Father, sees you (clothed in the righteousness of Christ) already, as sinless, as He saw His firstborn Son, Jesus, who even though He was tempted in every respect as we are, was without sin.

We must face up to the fact that every human being on this planet earth, regardless of nationality, race, religion, rich or poor, male or female is either a begotten child of Satan (unconverted) or a begotten child of God (converted). There is no neutral position, no third option, no hiding and no denying this reality.

To come to birth as a child of Satan, means eternal death!
To come to birth as a child of God, means eternal life!

Once man (kind) obtained the knowledge of good and evil through Adam and Eve, there is no other alternative to master this knowledge, but to become what God is – DIVINE, which gives one the necessary character to have the knowledge of good and evil, and yet, never again sin, for whoever is born of God CANNOT sin, because he is (a) God (being).

“I do assure you,” said Jesus, “that unless a man is born from water and from spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh and spirit gives birth to spirit: you must not be surprised that I told you that all of you must be born again” (John 3:5-7 Phillips).

There is a spiritual one-ness that, I am afraid, escapes our human comprehension, and yet, God said that we would understand spiritual concepts by the things He created. God’s greatest creation was man, and that is why I believe that the most important spiritual lessons can be learned on ourselves. For example, how are we to understand John 1:1? Well, we look at ourselves, and personalize John 1:1 as: “In the beginning is my word, and my word is with me, and my word is me.” Clearly, that statement defines ONE human being – me. Likewise, when the Bible says: “In the beginning was the Word (of God), and the Word (of God) was with God, and the Word (of God) was God,” this statement therefore, also, clearly defines ONE God being – God.

How close and how unified is the Word (of God) with God? Obviously, 100%, for the Word (of God - the thought) had no capacity to speak anything other than what came from the Mind (of God - the Thinker).

And so, 2000 years ago, when the Word (of God) BECAME the Son (of God), Jesus, He was able, because of His perfect character and His perfect love toward God, never to speak anything contrary to what He received from His Father. In other words, the absolute one-ness that existed between the Word and God in the Old Testament (an involuntary one-ness), is the same as it was and is between the Son and the Father in the New Testament (a voluntary one-ness).

The purpose of (human) life is to bring about God’s decision and desire to re-produce Himself and establish the Family of God. Therefore, the objective of human (beings) should always be, on a voluntary, free will basis, to speak, to live and to become the pure Word of God, and thereby follow in the footsteps of our elder Brother, and become what He is – Deity!

“See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God’s children – and so, in fact, we are. This is why the world does not know us: it has not known God. My dear friends, we are now God’s (begotten) children, but it is not yet clear what we shall become. But this we know: when Christ appears, we shall become like him (born again), because we shall see him as he really is. Everyone who has this hope in Christ keeps himself pure, just as Christ is pure” (1 John 3:1-3 Good News for Modern Man).

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