Who is Jesus? — Bottom Line

If  He, Jesus is God-Incarnate, the God-Man, then, He is superior to all!!! No other man on earth claimed deity. No other man or prophet on earth proved or backed up the claim to deity. We, the followers of Jesus, simply believe that He is who He claimed to be and that He backed that up in the most forceful way by His life on earth. The largest proof is His resurrection from the dead and ascension into Heaven. There is much proof supporting His resurrection from the dead.

You must understand that Christians who accept the Word of God, do not choose to believe that Jesus is the unique way to God. Once we believe He is God in the flesh, we simply have to see Him as the only way to know and serve God truly. Once that is understood—nothing else–no other prophet, no other religion, compares to Him.

What are your thoughts?

Is Jesus God? He spoke the greatest words ever spoken

Jesus said about his own words, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away” Luke 21:33

It was common for the crowds who heard Him to be “astonished at His teaching” Luke 4:32.  Even a Roman officer exclaimed, “No one ever spoke like this Man!” John 7:46

Statistically speaking, the Gospels are the greatest literature ever written. They are read by more people, quoted by more authors, translated into more tongues, represented in more art, set to more music, than any other book or books written by any man in any century in any land. But the words of Christ are not great on the grounds that they have such a statistical edge over any body else’s words. They are read more, quoted more, loved more, believed more, and translated more because they are the greatest words ever spoken. And where is their greatness? Their greatness lies in the pure, lucid spirituality in dealing clearly, definitively, and authoritatively with the greatest problems that throb in the human breast; namely, Who is God? Does He love me? What should I do to please Him? How does He look at my sin? How can I be forgiven? Where will I go when I die? How must I treat others? No other man’s words have the appeal of Jesus’ words because no other man can answer these fundamental human questions as Jesus answered them. They are the kind of words and the kind of answers we would expect God to give, and we who believe in Jesus’ deity have no problem as to why these words came from His mouth.
Ramm, Protestant Christian Evidences, 170-171

Napoleon:

Never did the Speaker seem to stand more utterly alone than when He uttered this majestic utterance. Never did it seem more improbable that it should be fulfilled. But as we look across the centuries we see how it has been realized. His words have passed into law, they have passed into doctrines, they have passed into proverbs, they have passed into consolations, but they have never ‘passed away.’ What human teacher ever dared to claim an eternity for his words?  G. F. Maclean, Cambridge Bible for Schools, 149

Though without formal rabbinical training, He showed no timidity or self-consciousness, no hesitation as to what He felt to be truth. Without any thought of Himself or His audience, He spoke out fearlessly on every occasion, utterly heedless of the consequences to Himself, and only concerned for truth and the delivery of His Father’s message. The power of His teaching was also deeply felt. “His word was with power” Luke 4:32. The spiritual force of His personality expressed itself in His utterances and held His hearers in its enthralling grasp. And so we are not surprised to read of the impression of uniqueness made by Him. “Never man spoke like this man” John 7:46. The simplicity and charm and yet the depth, the directness, the universality, and the truth of His teaching made a deep mark on His hearers, and elicited the conviction that they were in the presence of a Teacher such as man had never known before. And thus the large proportion of teaching in the Gospels, and the impressions evidently created by the Teacher Himself, are such that we are not at all surprised that years afterward the great Apostle of the Gentiles should recall these things and say, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus” Acts 20:35. The same impression has been made in every age since the days of Christ and His immediate followers, and in any full consideration of His person as the substance of Christianity great attention must necessarily be paid to His teaching.  W. H. Griffith Thomas, Christianity Is Christ, 32

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Is Jesus God? Did He live a perfect life?

If God became a man, then we would expect him to live more perfectly than any human who has ever lived.

Jesus’ Friends:

His life was holy; His word was true; His who character was the embodiment of truth. There never has been a more real or genuine man than Jesus of Nazareth.
W. B. Thomas, Christianity Is Christ, 11

Carnegie Simpson wrote:

Instinctively we do not class Him with others. When one reads His name in a list beginning with Confucius and ending with Goethe we feel it is an offense less against orthodozy than against decency. Jesus is not one of the group of the 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. He is simply Jesus. Nothing could add to that…He is beyond our analyses. He confounds our canons of human nature. He compels our criticism to overleap itself. He awes our spirits. There is a saying of Charles Lamb … that “If Shakespeare was to come into this room we should all rise up to meet him, but if that Person (ie, Jesus) was to come into it, we should all fall down and try to kiss the hem of his garment
Quoted by John Stott, Basic Christianity, 36

Jesus was the most Jewish of Jews; even more Jewish than Hillel
Yosef Klausner, Jewish intellectual & scholar of Jewish religion and history, Yeschu Hanostri, 1249

It is universally admitted…that Christ taught the purest and sublimest system of ethics, one which throws the moral precepts and maxims of the wisest men of antiquity far into the shade.
Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ, 44

Only a Christ could have conceived a Christ
Joseph Parker in Ecce Deus, from Martin, CC, 57

Napoleon Boneparte:

I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Ceasar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we reast the creatsion of our enius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.
Frank Mead,  Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, 56

Antagonists to the cause of Christ:

I esteem the Gospels to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the reflected splendour of a sublimity, proceeding from the person of Jesus Christ and of as Divine a kind as was ever manifested upon earth.
Frank Ballard, MU, 251

He was too great for his disciples. And in view of what he plainly said, is it any wonder that all who were rich and prosperous felt a horror of strange things, a swimming of their world at his teaching? Perhaps the priests and the rulers and the rich men understood him better than his followers. He was dragging out all the little private reservations they had made from social service into the light of a universal religious life. He was like some terrible moral huntsman digging manking out of the snug burrow in which they had lived hitherto. In the white blaze of this kingdom of his there was to be no property, no privilege, no pride and precendence; no motive indeed and no reward but love. Is it any wonder that men were dazzled and blinded and cried out against him? Even his disciples cried out when he would not spare them the light. Is it any wonder that the priests realized that between this man and themselves there was no choice but that he or priestcraft should perish? Is it any wonder that the Roman soldiers, confronted and amazed by something soaring over their comprehension and threatening all their disciplines, should take refuge in wild laughter, and crown him with thorns and robe him in purple and make a mock Caesar of him? For to take him seriously was to enter upon a strange and alarming life, to abandon habits, to control instincts and impulses, to essay an incredible happiness….

Is it any wonder that to this day this Galilean is too much for our small hearts?” — H.G. Wells, The Outline of History, 535-536

It’s an interesting thing to be convicted of Christ by an atheist.

Is Science Your God?

Today I have to admit that I have had a personal situation that lead me to make Science my God.

I love the outdoors and almost every afternoon after work I am out doors, even if for only a few minutes and even in winter.  Being outside can be a great stress reliever and has a great calming effect on me.  Lots of exposure outdoors may be the source of the problem I will describe.

Switching now to my health problem:  I don’t know how I got it, but 4.5 years ago I noticed a red spot on my right arm.

I have regular visits to the dermatologist now because I have had several skin cancers.  The dermatologist also took care of other nodules on my right arm and I had talked to him about the red spot one time but he did not treatment it.

I finally focused on it in one of my visits and he prescribed a steroid cream to apply to it.  Now, not only did he prescribe the steroid cream, he told me to place the cream on the bump and then put a band aid over it to drive it in.  He told me not to use continuously more than two weeks.  I did as he said and in a day or two I begin to see other red bumps spring up around the original bump.  I put cream on those with a band aid too and soon the red spots began to spread.    This spreading eventually resulted in an eruption all over the top of my right forearm.

I stopped the cream and the band aids and went back to the doctor.  Looking back now, I believe he knew that the treatment was not effective but did not know what to do, so he turned me over to his Physician’s Assistant or PA.  The PA prescribed Eledel , a nonsteroidal cream.  In addition she took skin specimens and skin scrapings to check for fungus.  None were evident from the scrapings or specimens.   The Eledel worked and without side effects or eruptions but it did not cure.  Next the PA and another physician prescribed Clobex, another steroidal cream.   I used Clobex for a few weeks and again I found myself with an even greater  eruption or reaction.  This time the eruption was on both the top and bottom of my forearm.

At this point, my faith began to waver.  The docs had been treating the problem for well over a year now and there was no cure, it had only spread. I began to question whether these docs or Pas were going to find a cure.

In desperation I made an appoint with another Dr. in the same practice who specializes in rashes.  He saw the reaction to the Clobex,  took another skin scraping to check for fungus and found none.

BUT,  he ask that we try antifungal cream and tablets and gave me a prescription for both.

I have been trained in the scientific method.  The scientific method is sound especially regarding physical and biological phenomenon.

I had already spent several hundred dollars on medications and doctors appointments.  Now I have a doctor schooled in the scientific method who is asking me to spend more of my money on drugs at the behest of his hunches or assumptions.   He has no data to back up his diagnosis and prescriptions.

I left the appointment disappointed that this doctor seemed to abolish all of his training, not using the data he had but going on intuition.

I looked up the drugs on the internet to see side effects because at this point I had certainly experienced too many side effects not to be cautious.  What I found out it that the cream ingredients and the tablets were both prescribed for athlete’s foot.

Being the scientist/logical thinker that I am, I deduced that instead of spending a couple hundred more dollars I will just test my over the counter athlete’s foot cream on this thing!!!!

I began applying the athlete’s foot cream. Low and behold, the itching stopped.  It stopped instantly.  WOW, I thought!  Maybe we are on to something.  I got the cream prescription filled and began to use it.  Again no itching and no spreading of the red lesions.  Then, I did get some spread but the itching ceased.  I got the tablet prescription filled and began to take them. Now, no itching and no spread of the red lesions.

This experience taught me a lesson that even the scientifically-oriented professions do not always rely totally on scientific approaches or data.  They must move to summations and conclusions that may be synthesis of data and experience which may also lead to the right conclusions or diagnoses.

Even in the physical realm, science can only go so far.   Not everything about the physical world is known.  Not everything about the human body is known or understood.  Though he could not see the fungus, he suspected fungus and operated in faith that his understanding of how fungus presents on the body may be accurate.

This principle transfers directly to the spiritual dimension of life.  John 3 quoting Jesus says you see the wind and you hear it’s sound but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with one who is born of the Spirit.

The person born of the Spirit by training and experience can “see” things of the spirit of God.  That person can apply faith in certain situations, just like my physician applied his faith, based on his historical experience with other patients with the same problem.  I had not had that experience, so I could not exercise that type faith as he could.  I am glad I trusted this doctor and inched out in faith one step at a time.  My arm is clear of lesions and nodules today as a result.

So it is with the spirit of God.  Consider this illustration and what you may be hearing from the Spirit of God.  You can take baby steps towards Jesus.  The true Spirit of God will draw you to him. If He is real, He will meet you in those steps and reveal Himself to you more fully.

I am so glad I did that long ago.  I am still taking baby steps towards Him and He is with my every step.

As with any topic here we are open to your comments below or would you pass it on through a reading service?

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Is Jesus God? Did He perform Miracles?

If God became a man, He would perform miracles

1. The Scriptural Witness

Jesus said,  “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: the blink see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” Luke 7:22.

Jesus miracles demonstrated a great variety of power:

Power over nature
Power over disease,
Power over demons,
Powers of creation
Power over death

His demonstration of power also fulfilled prophecy and pointed to Him as the Messiah predicted in Hebrew Scriptures.

Miracles of Physical Healing

Leperosy   Matthew 8:2-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-15;
Paralytic   Matthew 9:2-8; Mark 2:3-12; Luke 5:18-26;
Peter’s mother-in-law   Matthew 8:14-17; Mark 1:29-31;
A nobleman’s son   John 4:46-53; John 5:1-9;
A withered hand   Matthew 12:9-13; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11;
Deafness and dumbness   Mark 7:31-37;
Blindness   Mark 8:22-25; John 9; Mark 10:46-52;
Ten lepers   Luke 17:11-19;
Malchus’s severed ear   Luke 22: 47-51
Hemorrhage   Matthew 9:20-22
Dropsy   Luke 14:24

Miracles of the Natural Realm

Water converted to wine at Cana John 2:1-11
Stilling a storm Matthew 8:23-27
Supernatural catch of fish Luke 5:1-11
Multiplying food
5000 fed Matthew 14:15-21
4000 fed Matthew 15:32-39
Walking on water matthew 14:22,23
Money from a fish Matthew 17:24-27
Fig tree dried up Matthew 21:18-22

Miracles of Raising the Dead

Jairus’s daughter Matthew 9:18-26
Widow’s son Luke 7:11-15
Lazarus of Bethany John 11:1-4

Comments on His Maracles

All His miracles are but natural manifestations of His person, and hence they were performed with the same ease with which we perform our ordinary daily works. PC, 76-77 “His miracles were, without exception, prompted by the purest motives and aimed at the glory of God and the benefit of men; they are miracles of love and mercy, full of instruction and significance and in harmony with His character and mission.  Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ, 91

Bernard Ramm:   If miracles are capable of sensory perception, they can be made matters of testimony. If they are adequately testified to, then the recorded testimony has the same validity for evidence as the experiences of beholding the events. !!!!

Here is what Bernard Ramm observes on Lazarus’s resurrection:

If the raising of Lazarus was actually witnessed by John and recorded faithfully by him when still in soundness of faculties and memory, for purposes of evidence it is the same as if we (who read John’s account) were there and saw it.  Bernard Ramm, PhD, Protestant Christian Evidences, 140-141

As with any topic here we are open to your comments below or put it out there for other readers.

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Is Jesus God? Was He without sin?

If God became a man, we would expect Him to be without Sin

1. Jesus’s View of Himself

To a hostile crowd:

“Which of you convicts Me of sin?” John 8:46

He got no answer.   Though He invited scrutiny, no one could accuse him of anything.   He was innocent.   He could encourage this public examination because He was without sin.

John 8:29: “I always do those things that please Him.”

He was in unbroken communion with His Father in heaven.

Another quality which has often been remarked was the absence of any sense of having committed sin or of a basic corruption of Himself.  It is highly significant that in one as sensitive morally as was Jesus and who taught His followers to ask for the forgiveness of their sins there is no hint of any need for forgiveness for Himself, no asking of pardon, either from those about Him or of God.
Kenneth Scott Latourette, Historian, A History or Christianity, 47

The best reason to consider Him sinless: “is the fact that He allowed His dearest friends to think that He was (sinless). There is in all His talk no trace of regret or hint of compunction or suggestion of sorrow for shortcoming, or slightest vestige of remorse. He taught other men to think of themselves as sinners, He asserted plainly that the human heart is evil, He told His disciples that every time they prayed they were to pray to be forgiven, but He never speaks or acts as though He himself has the faintest consciousness of having ever done anything other than what was pleasing to God. Jefferson, CJ, 225

Another quality which has often been remarked was the absence of any sense of having committed sin or of a basic corruption of Himself…It is highly significant that in one as sensitive morally as was Jesus and who taught His followers to ask for the forgiveness of their sins there is no hint of any need for forgiveness for Himself, no asking of pardon, either from those about Him or of God.
Kenneth Scott Latourette, Historian, A History or Christianity, 47

2. The Witness of His Friends

Jesus’ closest associates, Peter and John, attest to His being without sin:

1 Peter 1:19: “but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

1 Peter 2:33: “Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth.”

1 John 3:5: “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.”

While saying this, John also declared that anyone who declares himself to be without sin, he is a liar and he is calling God a liar also!!!

Even Judas—the one responsible for Jesus’ death—recognized Jesus’ innocence. “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood” Mt 27:3,4

Hebrews 4:15: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin”

3. The Witness of His Enemies

One thief rebuked the other: This Man has done nothing wrong.” Luke 23:41

Pilate also found Jesus innocent of wrong-doing “You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him” Luke 23:14

The Roman centurion at the cross of Jesus: “Certainly this man was innocent” Luke 23:47

Is Jeus God? His unique entrance into Human History

Mohammed, Confucius, Buddha, and all other human beings were conceived by natural means: a male human sperm fertilizing a female human egg. Not so with Jesus Christ. His mother conceived Him while she was yet a virgin. He had no paternal father. The virgin conception and birth of Christ is utterly unique in human history.

Biblical Testimony for the Virgin Birth

The prophets of the Old Testament predicted the Messiah’s unusual conception hundreds of years before Matthew and Luke ever wrote their Gospels.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.  Genesis 3:15

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.   Isaiah 7:14

This may not be straightforward to the uninitiated.  At the end of the Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis, God says that there will be hostilities between Satan, represented here by the Serpent, and the offspring of Eve.  The offspring, he, will bruise Satan’s head.

Isaiah notes a specific sign of the coming of this Immanuel, or ‘God with us’,  he will be born of a virgin.   How many times has that happened?  We know of one time and in the blood lines outlined in the Old Testament and document in Matthew and Luke.

What is this?  It is a memorial,  That star-like bronze detail on the floor represents were Jesus was born is Palestine.   It is lit 24/7 as a memorial to the birthplace of Jesus.  I don’t like gaudy or tacky but this site symbolizes that the God we worship, the G0d-Man we worship had an absolutely unique entrance to earth and as predicted in the Hebrew scriptures.

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Is Jesus God?

This can be a deep subject but it is so important that I want to approach the topic in the next few weeks.

I want to look at some of the uniquenesses of the human side of Jesus and His role on earth.  If God became a man what would He be like?

Someone loves you more than I ever could

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Christians demand proof for atheist ad claims in Britain

LONDON (AFP) — Angry Christians have protested to Britain’s advertising watchdog over an atheist ad campaign claiming “there’s probably no God” on the sides of buses, asking for proof, they said Thursday.

The campaign, featuring slogans plastered on some 800 buses across the country and in London’s subway system, was launched this month backed by the British Humanist Association (BHA)…read more…

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