As previously mentioned, I have been having many conversations with a patient of mine who is a Jehovah's Witness. From my understanding, they believe that Jesus is an angel that God commissioned with the task of saving the world from their sin through His death. I have been taught from as far back as I can remember that Christ is God, though I had no convincing proof of this until I started searching for myself. Now, I can't help but notice proofs on almost every page of Scripture. Let's get started on the first one that jumped out at me. Keep in mind these are not the thoughts of a trained theologian, just a layman who is making some observations on the text.
Mark 1:2-3 - "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: "Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You; who will prepare Your way; The voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."'"
Here, Mark actually quotes 2 OT passages: only one being from Isaiah's book (Is. 40:3). The other is from Malachi 3:1. Apparently it was common custom when using several quotes to lump them together under the name of the more prominent prophet. In some translations, it is rendered "As it is written in the prophets," which is probably more literally correct. For further clarification, and proof of Christ's deity, let's view these 2 passages followed by my uneducated observations.
Malachi 3:1 - "'Behold, I am going to send My messenger and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,' says the LORD of hosts."
Observations
1. God is going to send a messenger. This messenger is sent out to prepare the way for the one who follows him. Each of the four Gospels clearly verifies this messenger to be John the Baptist (Matt 3:3, Mark 1:2, Luke 3:4-6, John 1:23).
2. This messenger is going to prepare the way for God. The end of verse 1 clearly identifies that Jehovah is the one speaking these words and He uses the personal pronoun, "Me" to describe the identity of the person who's way the messenger is preparing. There is an apparent disagreement with the interpretation of this passage that Mark gives us as he says, "who will prepare Your way." So we are left with 1 of 2 options: either Mark is wrong to interpret this passage to Christ and therefore the entire Bible is not trustworthy, or Jesus is God.
Isaiah 40:3 - "A voice calling, 'Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make smooth in the dessert a highway for our God.'"
Observations
1. As previously stated, all four Gospels agree that John the Baptist is the prophesied messenger, the "voice calling." In John 1:23, John the Baptist identifies himself as the "voice" in this passage.
2. Who is it that the "voice" is preparing the way for? "Clear the way for the LORD (Jehovah/Yaweh)...for our God." Unless God came to the earth, there is no need to clear the way or make a path for Him. In other words, Jesus has to be God in order for this passage to be true.
Whenever we see LORD in capital letters, it is the Hebrew word YHWH, which in all honesty (from my research), we really have no idea how to accurately pronounce. YHWH also happens to be God's name. Some say it should be pronounced "Yah-way" and others "Jeh-hoe-vuh." For our conversation it doesn't really matter, other than we know that it refers to God by name.
It seems clear from these OT quotations that John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for YHWH. But the NT clearly identifies that John the Baptist knew that his mission was to prepare the way for Christ. Contradiction in the Scriptures or verification of Christ's deity? I'm going with the choice that seems most likely - the choice that doesn't force me to throw away my Bible.
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6 comments:
Intresting addition:
John 8:58 Jesus uses an emphatic use of "I." He claims, "Before Abraham was, I am." In Greek, this is emphatically redundant since the subject, first person, is inflected in the verb. Jesus essentially says, "I am!" Calling attention to what God calls himself personally to Moses in the burning bush. It is part of the exact phrase God tells Moses in the LXX. I hope that aids your evidence for the "I am God" argument of Jesus.
Just a tid bit of greek fun for your studies.
(Sorry for my deleted comments-I adjusted my words and made a typo!)
Thanks Dan! I appreciate the more educated versions, since I don't have that education. :)
But the bible also has evidence that Jesus could not be the Messiah. That his liniage is traced back to King David, David who was of mixed jewish and Moabite ancestry. And the bible says in Deuteronomy 23:3
"No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation none belonging to them shall enter the assembly of the Lord for ever."
Hey Frank Rizzo, I just looked back and saw your comment. My only thought is that God promised to bless all the earth through Abram in Genesis 12. Through some of the comments that follow there, and mostly in the laws in Leviticus I see a big provision. Every slave or foreigner who wanted to become an Israelite was allowed to come freely into their cultural religion and be considered part of the 'family.' So even if David's parents were foreigners, if David wanted to be an Israelite, he could have converted and been considered one by their laws.
I don’t see any biblical evidence that Jesus isn’t God. The more I search it, the more everything fits together in a marvelous way. But don’t just take my word for it.
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