{"id":1795,"date":"2016-08-05T12:15:43","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T17:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/?p=1795"},"modified":"2016-09-01T00:05:12","modified_gmt":"2016-09-01T05:05:12","slug":"the-deity-of-jesus-a-defense-part-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/the-deity-of-jesus-a-defense-part-36\/","title":{"rendered":"The Deity of Jesus: A Defense. Part 3\/6"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesus Shares the A<\/strong>ttributes<\/em> of God<\/span><\/h1>\n

In this series of 6 blog posts<\/a>, I show\u00a0that, using only historical data that critical\/skeptical scholars grant<\/em>, it is possible to build a cumulative case demonstrating that Jesus not only was considered God by his followers and the early church, but that he claimed to be divine and acted consistently with such claim.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the previous post<\/a>, we argued that Jesus is God because he Received the Honors<\/strong> due to God<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now we follow along the same line, arguing that Jesus is God because he Shares the Attributes of God:<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

PART 3.\u00a0Jesus Shares the A<\/strong>ttributes<\/em> of God<\/span><\/h1>\n

God is sui generis<\/em> as attested in numerous passages in the Old Testament; there is no one like Yahweh.1<\/a><\/sup> Yet, in 2 Cor. 4:4 Paul states that the \u201cChrist\u201d is the \u201cimage\u201d of God. The use of the term (eik\u00f4n) indicates that Paul is equating the Son with the Father. \u201cWhereas God created<\/em> and made<\/em> human beings in his image (Gen. 1:26-27), Jesus Christ, God’s beloved Son, is<\/em> the image of God.\u201d2<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

We have also analyzed Philippians 2:5-11 at some extent. What we haven\u2019t mentioned is that this passage implies that Jesus pre-existed in heaven as deity. Similarly, in Luke 12:51\/Matt. 10:34\u2014a \u201cQ\u201d passage\u2014Jesus affirms his preexistence,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think that I have come<\/em> to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!\u201d3<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If Jesus has come<\/em> to earth, then if follows that he existed beforehand elsewhere. Setting this in context with Jesus\u2019 salvific mission, role as judge4<\/a><\/sup> of humanity, and worthy of worship, we have to conclude he is claiming to have existed with the Father in heaven before his earthly life as Gal 4:4-6 affirms:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGod sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem\u2026\u201d5<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not only was Jesus \u201csent\u201d but he has always existed.6<\/a><\/sup> In another \u201cQ\u201d passage,7<\/a><\/sup> Jesus says that he \u201coften wanted to gather together\u201d the people of Jerusalem \u201cas a hen gathers her chicks under her wings\u201d but they \u201cwere not willing.\u201d This is a reference to the past epochs when the Jews killed the prophets sent forth by God. Jesus is basically saying \u201cI sent prophets to warn you and protect you, but you rejected me.\u201d Accordingly, the metaphor of a hen protecting her chicks comes from the Old Testament.8<\/a><\/sup> This implies that Jesus is the same God who sent the prophets, but Paul affirms in 1 Cor. 8:6 that<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cthere is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is an affirmation that the Father is the Creator of all things, and\u00a0that Jesus Christ exists at that same level of Creator of all things, including\u00a0humanity. Creation is always a divine work. Therefore here Jesus is considered divine.<\/span><\/p>\n

In another \u201cQ\u201d source passage,9<\/a><\/sup> Jesus shows omnipresence through the remote healing of a man\u2019s servant. Jesus did not even have to see the ill person. It is also evident that the Apostles recognized Jesus\u2019 ability to discern people\u2019s hearts as recorded in the first prayer addressed to him in Acts, \u2018Lord, you know everyone’s heart\u2019 (Acts 1:24).10<\/a><\/sup> Another \u201cQ\u201d passage affirms that Jesus knew counterfactuals about people from Sidon, Sodom, and Tyre.11<\/a><\/sup> He would have to be omniscient to know what people would have done hundreds of years before his birth.12<\/a><\/sup><\/span>
\n So far we have reviewed the historical sources<\/a> from which we get the passages we analyze. We saw that Jesus is God because he received the honors<\/em> <\/strong><\/a>due to God alone and because he shares the attributes<\/em> <\/strong>of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the next post<\/a>, we argue that Jesus is God because he shares the names<\/strong> <\/em>of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be continued…<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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    \n
  1. See Exod. 8:10; 9:14; 15:11; 2 Sam. 7:22; 1 Kings 8:23; 1 Chron. 17:20; Ps. 86:8; Isa. 40:18, 25; 44:7; 46:5, 9; Jer. 10:6-7; Mic. 7:18. Bowman, 703. Kindle. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Ibid., 754. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Ibid., 833. Emphasis in the original. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. See \u201cL\u201d passage Luke 19:10. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  5. See also Rom 8:3: For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son\u2026\u201d ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Bowman, 926. Kindle. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Matt. 23:37; 13:34. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  8. See Deut. 32:11; Ruth 2:12; Ps. 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 63:7; 91:4. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  9. See Matt. 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Bowman, 1236. Kindle. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  11. Matt 11:21-23; Luke 10:13-15. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  12. A Molinist would recognize this as an affirmation of Middle Knowledge. For a deeper analysis of this passage and Molinism in general see Christophe A. Du-Pond, \u201cPredestination and Free Will: Is Molinism Biblical?\u201d<\/em> Personal Blog http:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/predestination-and-free-will-is-molinism-biblical\/, (accessed November 30th, 2015). ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Jesus Shares the Attributes of God In this series of 6 blog posts, I show\u00a0that, using only historical data that critical\/skeptical scholars grant, it is possible to build a cumulative case demonstrating that Jesus not only was considered God by his followers and the early church, but that he claimed to be divine and acted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275,269,1003,268],"tags":[940,942,938,939,941,943],"class_list":["post-1795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apologetics-en","category-historicity","category-jesus-as-god","category-new-testament","tag-divinity-of-christ","tag-gospel-sources","tag-jesus-as-god","tag-jesus-deity","tag-putting-jesus-in-his-place","tag-q-source"],"views":404,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritasfidei.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}