#6. JESUS CHRIST = GOD ??

We’ve been exploring who Jesus Christ really is…

• Jesus proved He is the ‘I AM’ - knocking armed soldiers off their feet!
• His disciples saw Him as the Son of God : ‘God with us'
• Apostle Paul tells us Jesus is the exact image of the invisible God
• From the prophets we learn that Jesus is Jehovah
• So that means He is the Almighty!...which He confirms in The Revelation

“Hang about…how can God be in heaven and dead on the cross at the same time?… and while we’re at it…                                    

3 judges > 1 unanimous verdict

The word Trinity is not even in the Bible!”                                                             

Well let’s see if there can be 3 ‘persons’ or identities in one true God……

Back at the beginning… ‘God said: “Let us make man in our image…”’ where ‘God’ is from Hebrew: elohim - a plural unity!


So we need Isaiah again to reveal God to us…

“…from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I; and now the Lord God and His Spirit has sent me.”

What will His name be?

Fog, ice and ocean = water!

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…”

More than that…

“…the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest on Him…”



…and here is where this happened – PUBLICLY!

‘the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”

They say Jesus was just a good man and that God doesn't even exist??

So is Jesus really God in human form?  Yes!!

‘…Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen’

‘Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God…’



 ‘…God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.’

“…of the great God and of the Saviour of us, Christ Jesus”


“…in His Son Jesus Christ.‘This is the true God and eternal life.’

“Thy throne, o God…Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated lawlessness; therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee …”

In fact…

            ‘…in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.’   WOW!!

Make no mistake…

“At the name of Jesus every knee should bow…every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father’s glory.”

Yes, it’s all a bit hard to get our heads around so how about we illustrate this simply……….






3 matches > 1 flame!...1 died for 3 days/nights but came alive again!

#5. JESUS NOT THE ALMIGHTY??

Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists came from the Advent Movement and both teach that Jesus Christ is not Almighty God.

Let’s see if they’re right – or very wrong!...

In The Revelation the apostle John introduces Jesus Christ as ‘the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth’. Who is it that then says?...

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, [the beginning and the end], says the Lord God, he who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

(Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet – like saying A to Z.)

John saw ‘one like the Son of Man’ who said:

“I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last...fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living One and was dead…”

Where else can we find this claim to being the ‘first and last’?

In the prophecy of Isaiah of course!

“I, Jehovah, the first; and with the last, I am He.”

“Thus says Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: I am the first and the last, and besides me there is no God…”

“I am the One, I am the first. Moreover I am the last…”

Remember we found that Jesus proved He is Jehovah – the ‘I AM’ – whose glory Isaiah saw in the temple, so let’s go right back to what the ‘First and Last’ said to Moses:

           

“I am Jehovah. I appeared… as the Almighty God…”

Does anybody still want to argue that Jesus Christ is not the Almighty?

NEXT….. Jesus = God??  No ‘Trinity’ in the Bible??
Click the link:
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/jesus-christ-god.html

                       

#4. WHO IS THE JW 'JESUS'?

Cornering women while husbands are at work??

                                                                                     

Come with us as we keep exploring who Jesus really is….

We have all had Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking on our door trying to ‘Awake’ us with their Watchtower magazines.                                      


Who cares what JW’s claim to be?  What we need to know is…..

“Who is this ‘Jehovah’ they claim to represent?”…and here is their published response: 

“So we do not worship Jesus, as we do not believe that he is Almighty God.

Jehovah alone is God Almighty. Therefore, he has no equal."

Hang on a minute!...                                                      

Jesus just needed to say “I AM!” to knock soldiers over, His friends saw Him as GOD living with them, He is the ‘exact image’ of God in heaven...and don’t forget, John told us that Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory……….as ‘Jehovah of hosts’ in the temple 700 years before!!

Remember what John the Baptist shouted out, from Isaiah?

“Prepare you the way of Jehovah! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!”

What else did Isaiah have to say?...

‘They shall see the glory of Jehovah, the excellency of our God…Behold your God: vengeance comes, the recompense of God! He will come Himself and save you.’

“I, I am Jehovah; and besides me there is no saviour.”

“Is it not I, Jehovah? And there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour, there is none else...”

…and not just Isaiah – here is Zechariah:

‘Jehovah will go forth and fight with those nations…his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives…and Jehovah my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.’

Jehovah will stand on the mount of Olives?? He will come with all His saints??  

Luke tells us that Jesus will return to the mount of Olives and the apostle Paul tells us who Jehovah is:

‘…at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.’

Do these people read from the same Bible as the rest of us??...it clearly teaches us:                                     

Jesus = Jehovah = Jesus.

You people cannot be….. the real Jehovah’s Witnesses.     

Sorry. Keep your magazines. 


NEXT..
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/jesus-not-almighty.html                                       

      

#3, JESUS: IMAGE OF GOD

Come with us as we continue to check out who this Man, Jesus Christ, really is…

First we found that He claimed to be the ‘I AM’ - which was enough to knock soldiers off their feet when they came to arrest Him. 
Then we discovered that His friends gradually saw that He was really God living among us!                        

Hang about!....                                                             

How can God be in heaven and on earth at the same time?

Let’s use George Washington as an example.       

There is no doubt he was once alive on this earth but personally is now as visible to us today as God is invisible.                    

Here is George being sworn-in as first President…no just kidding…that’s a very close resemblance. (by David Morse)

In the same way Jesus resembled the invisible God:

‘…Christ, who is the image of God…’

 
‘the Son…who is the image of the invisible God…by Him were all things created…all things were created by Him and for Him…’

         
…where ‘image’ comes from the Greek: eikon meaning ‘likeness’ or ‘resemblance’.                 

Better than a resemblance….                                                 

Artists have portrayed Mr. President so we have images of him in paintings, on dollar bills and even sculpted in rock.

In the same way, we find this one:

‘the Son…the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person…’

Wow!... ‘express image’??....in human form?                       

This comes from the Greek: charakter, the same word used for the emperor’s engraving stamped on a Roman coin.

Okay, John the fisherman didn't have an i-phone in his back pocket, and it's probably just as well. Not only did Jesus resemble God, He is the EXACT IMAGE of God in heaven!...so close, just like identical twins, that the apostle Paul doesn’t distinguish any difference!

‘…our Lord Jesus Christ; which in its own time the blessed and only Ruler shall show, the King of those that reign, and Lord of those that exercise lordship; who only has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; who no man has seen, nor is able to see; to whom be honour and eternal might.  Amen.’

Perhaps ‘doubting’ Thomas had more idea than most of us…

“My Lord and my God!”

NEXT:  http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/4-who-is-jw-jesus.html

#2 HOW DID JOHN SEE JESUS?

Explore with us who this Man, Jesus Christ, really is...                                                              

We found that John the fisherman tells us Jesus made 7 ‘I AM’ claims such as “I AM the Resurrection and the Life” – plus one more…      

Jesus identified as the ‘I AM’ pre-dating Abraham!

7 + 1  I AM's    

So how did John see Jesus?  He cuts straight to the chase…

“In the beginning was the WORD…”, and also the LIGHT, the only begotten SON of God the Father.      

He also tells us that John the Baptist and his disciples identified Jesus as THE LORD, the LAMB OF GOD, the MESSIAH or CHRIST, and the KING OF ISRAEL. That’s 7 titles of Jesus Christ - plus one more….

Jesus identified Himself as the SON OF MAN.             

According to the Psalms and Daniel’s prophecy, this Man is claiming universal dominion of heaven and earth!

7 + 1 titles

In the end John confirms that his reason for writing was to prove to us, by detailing 7 miracles plus one, that Jesus is the Son of God. 

7+1 miracles

                                                                              
Does John give any more clues on who this Man, Jesus Christ is?

"Father, save Me from this hour..."

After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He entered Jerusalem where His public entreaty: “Father save me from this hour…” was answered by a voice from heaven, yet the Jews refused to believe in Him – the same Jehovah whose glory was seen by Isaiah 700 years before!...

‘…I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple…’                    
“Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts; the whole Earth is full of His glory!”

Wait – there’s more!                                                                        

In private, Jesus had revealed to His disciples:           

 “…he that has seen Me has seen the Father.”

The Jews had no doubt what this Man was on about when He said God was His Father or “I and my Father are one” – He was…

‘Making Himself equal with God’!

John told us at the outset that ‘the Word was God’ and finally his friend Thomas realized this too:

"My Lord and my God!"

Who agreed?  

Matthew, quoting Isaiah writing 700 years before:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel"….

“GOD WITH US”

NEXT: How can God be in heaven while dying on earth?


http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/3-jesus-image-of-god.html

             

#1 WHO CAN CLAIM 'I AM'?

Who is this Man, Jesus Christ?.....a liar, a lunatic or the Lord?

Muslims admit He is a prophet, Hindus consider Him an ‘avatar’, Buddhists see Him as a good man.                                    

What about cults in Christendom?                    

Mormons deny His deity. Would you believe?...Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus was not the Almighty but Michael the archangel!

Let’s see who Jesus really is…                                                                                                      

His friend John the fisherman tells us of 7 claims Jesus made:

·       “I AM the Bread of Life”

·       “I AM the Light of the world”

·       “I AM the Door…”

·       “I AM the Good Shepherd”

·       “I AM the Resurrection and the Life”

·       “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life”

·       “I AM the True Vine…”

Finally, when they came to arrest ‘Jesus the Nazarene’, He knocked them off their feet just by saying: “I AM”!

"I AM!"

So what did He say that got the Jews so mad they tried to stone Him on the spot?             

“Before Abraham was, I AM”

…the same ‘I AM’ who spoke to Moses from the burning bush!

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” : “I AM that I AM”

(Literally: ‘I exist who exists’ – in effect: ‘I Was, I AM, I Will Be’)

Please don’t expect an explanation of that. 

Imagine how stupid ‘I AM’ would look on my tombstone - ‘I WAS’ would be all I could claim!           

So what did John the fisherman think of Jesus?
Click the link below:


http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/2-how-did-john-see-jesus.html