Begotten

There's a lot of Jesus camps in the world today, and I don't mean the kind you send your kids off to get their brains sufficiently scrubbed with the truth. I'm talking about different beliefs about Jesus' nature and mission on Earth. There's probably about as many beliefs about Jesus as there are pizza topping combinations, but there are some pretty major groups the take the lead.

You've got the "Jesus never existed" camp and the "good moral teacher" camp for those who don't believe Jesus is the savior of the world, and then you have the camps that believe Jesus died for their sins, some of which say Jesus is God and some of which say Jesus is something less than God. It's the latter camps I'm most particularly interested in, but let's address the first two very briefly.

Regarding the "legend" camp, there's more evidence that Jesus existed than any other ancient historical figure. The Bible is incredibly reliable historically, especially the New Testament which talks about Jesus. In other words, if you're willing to believe a bunch of old dead guys existed 2,000 or more years ago, you have no reason to say Jesus didn't.

Regarding the "good moral teacher" camp, you also cannot say reduce Jesus to this based on his recorded life in the Bible. You could say that he was if you didn't believe most of what was written about him in the Bible, which you'd have no basis for believing, but that would be a whole other blog post. Given that the things he did and said are even somewhere in the ballpark, there some pretty bold stuff in there.

Let's just take a look through the book of Matthew only, quickly. He said that he had the authority on earth to forgive sins. He said that anyone who acknowledges him before men, he would acknowledge before God, and that anyone who denied him before men, he would deny before God. He said that no one knows God the Father unless he, the Son, chooses to reveal him. He said that those who left all for his name's sake will inherit eternal life. He said that he's going to come back in glory with the angels and judge the world. He said that he would died and be raised to life again, and told his followers where to meet him. That doesn't sound like something a "good moral teacher" would say. That sounds like something a lunatic or a liar would say -- unless it was true. There is no door open for the good moral teacher argument. You either say that Jesus is Lord or a nut case or a devil. Those are your choices.

Moving on from there, let's go to the camps that say Jesus is, in fact, Lord. How about those that make him out to be something less than God? Let's take a look at a few things.

How about the first part of the gospel of John? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Read on and you'll see that the "Word became flesh". That sounds like God becoming flesh to me. Some will say the Bible is translated wrong here and it should read "the Word was a god" -- nevermind that those who know Greek and have read the ancient text say that's hogwash.

How about the first part of the book of Hebrews, where it was through Jesus the world was created? Not "a" world, but "the" world. Everything. The whole universe. From nothing.

How about in Acts, where it is written "be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood." who's blood? God's blood. Jesus' blood. Same blood.

How about those times people worship Jesus and are not corrected, knowing full well the commandment about worshiping God alone? They are not corrected. Other times people fall down at the feet of angels to worship them, and they are corrected and told to get up.

How about when Thomas says "My Lord and my God!" He's not corrected by Jesus either. Or how about when Paul writes "our God and Savior Jesus Christ?" He does that more than once.

How about Jesus' play on words? "I tell you that before Abraham, I AM." This isn't poor grammar, this is a reference to that whole burning bush thing with Moses, where Moses asks God who to say sent him, and God replies "I AM WHO I AM -- tell them I AM has sent me to you."

How about claiming to forgive sins? He goes around forgiven sins and talking like he's the one offended. Think of it this way -- if someone smacks you in the head, and I tell them "I forgive that," won't you wonder what kind of funny cigarette I've been smoking? I didn't get hit in the head. But that's how Jesus went about -- forgiving sins without checking with the people that might have actually been hurt by people's sins.

How about claiming to die on the cross for the forgiveness of the sins of the world? How could any being less than God himself pay the price for the sins of the whole world? The payment due to an infinite God for sin is infinite. If Jesus is finite, he could not pay it. If Jesus is not finite, then he is infinite, and there is only one who is that.

How about the phrase "Son of God" itself? This isn't some phrase that was taken to be heard as "yeah, we're all sons of God." No, to the Jewish ear 2,000 years ago, that is the equivalent of saying "I'm God." To make it fairly clear, he also said "I and the Father are one." Not one purpose, not one team, not one group. One. Don't believe that's a claim to be God? What was the reaction? "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." It's pretty clear that the Jews of the time thought Jesus was claiming to be God.

How about the most famous Bible verse of all time? Let's go to the KJV on this one -- "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Now I'm not a "KJV only" guy, but I think we've lost something in more modern translations with "one and only Son" or "only Son. I get why it was changed -- no one knows what the heck begotten means any more. But look in the lists of families in old Bibles -- "so and so begat so and so who begat so and so and so on!" Begat means you made another one of the same kind. People beget people and dogs beget dogs, and so on. God creates. He created matter, people, animals, plants, and so on. They are not him. But Jesus was not his "created son" -- he was his "begotten son". In other Words, the same "stuff" of God, not anything lower that was created.

So I'll agree, it's true. There is no one place in the Bible Jesus says "I am God." There are a ton, just in case we miss a few of them.