Was Jesus God or not?

Question

In response to a question which said, 'God sent himself to earth to be nailed to a pole...' Two people responded thus:

"Of course not! He sent his Son instead."

"No, God didnt send himself, he sent his son, to give his perfect life in exchange for the perfect life adam lost and did not pass down to us."

That thread is here:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071231042717AAYHWZQ&r=w&pa=FZptHWf.BGRX3OFMiD1UUOLUcgBqqKqUbLkj5a3cJIWAsxS8tg--&paid=answered#I5JxA3DjG0safKlbsS3h

But on christiananswers.net it says this:

"Jesus is more than a man. Although he is 100-percent human, he is also 100% God, the Creator of the universe. He is all-powerful. Although evil men killed his physical body, he easily had the power to restore life to his body again."

So we have two possible scenarios:

1. Jesus was not God. He was God's son, whom God condemned to a slow and painful death because God's creations turned out to be no better than he made us. Seems a bit harsh to me. I would have expected a loving omnipotent God to come up with a better idea that didn't involve such cruelty.

or

2. Jesus was God and God sacrificed himself to himself for the same reason.

You can't have it both ways so which is it? And don't you agree there could have been a better way of managing things?

By the way, I recommend Ricky Gervais on creationism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaEj3g5GOYA

Answer 1

To a Christian, I cannot argue. They will believe what they want to believe. But, no. Jesus was a man who lived and died 2,000 years ago.

Answer 2

Short and to the Point:

Jesus is God's Son.

Think about it, when Jesus was on Earth, before he was taken in to custody to be wrongfully accused, he was praying for help and strength.

Who was he praying to? Himself?

This is just one prove that Jesus has to be God's Son, and not that God sent himself to die as Jesus.

Answer 3

No "was" about it. Jesus is God. He is my Savior and my Lord.

Answer 4

I INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIANITY:

Christianity is a Semitic religion, which claims to have nearly 1.2 billion adherents all over the world. Christianity owes its name to Jesus Christ (peace be on him). The Holy Bible is the sacred scripture of the Christians:
a) The Bible is divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the Holy Scripture of the Jews and contains records of all the prophets of the Jews that came before Jesus (pbuh).
The New Testament contains records of the life of Jesus (pbuh).
b) The complete Bible, i.e. the Old Testament and the New Testament put together, contains 73 books. However, the Protestant Bible i.e. the King James Version, contains only 66 books as they consider 7 books of the Old Testament to be apocrypha, i.e. of doubtful authority.
Therefore the Old Testament of the Catholics, contains 46 books and that of the Protestants, 39 books. However the New Testament of both these sects contains 27 books.

II Position of Jesus (pbuh) in Islam:

(i) Islam is the only non-Christian faith, which makes it an article of faith to believe in Jesus (pbuh). No Muslim is a Muslim if he does not believe in Jesus (pbuh).

(ii) We believe that he was one of the mightiest Messengers of Allah (swt).

(iii) We believe that he was born miraculously, without any male intervention, which many modern day Christians do not believe.

(iv) We believe he was the Messiah translated Christ (pbuh).

(v) We believe that he gave life to the dead with God’s permission.

(iv) We believe that he healed those born blind, and the lepers with God’s permission.

III CONCEPT OF GOD IN CHRISTIANITY:

1. Jesus Christ (pbuh) never claimed Divinity
One may ask, if both Muslims and Christians love and respect Jesus (pbuh), where exactly is the parting of ways? The major difference between Islam and Christianity is the Christians’ insistence on the supposed divinity of Christ (pbuh). A study of the Christian scriptures reveals that Jesus (pbuh) never claimed divinity. In fact there is not a single unequivocal statement in the entire Bible where Jesus (pbuh) himself says, "I am God" or where he says, "worship me". In fact the Bible contains statements attributed to Jesus (pbuh) in which he preached quite the contrary. The following statements in the Bible are attributed to Jesus Christ (pbuh):
(i) "My Father is greater than I." [The Bible, John 14:28]
(ii) "My Father is greater than all." [The Bible, John 10:29]
(iii) "…I cast out devils by the Spirit of God…." [The Bible, Mathew 12:28]
(iv) "…I with the finger of God cast out devils…." [The Bible, Luke 11:20]
(v) "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgement is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." [The Bible, John 5:30]

2. The Mission of Jesus Christ (pbuh) – to Fulfill the Law
Jesus (pbuh) never claimed divinity for himself. He clearly announced the nature of his mission. Jesus (pbuh) was sent by God to confirm the previous Judaic law. This is clearly evident in the following statements attributed to Jesus (pbuh) in the Gospel of Mathew:
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
"For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." [The Bible, Mathew 5:17-20]

3. God Sent Jesus' (pbuh)

The Bible mentions the prophetic nature of Jesus (pbuh) mission in the following verses:

(i) "… and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me."
[The Bible, John 14:24]

(ii) "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent." [The Bible, John 17:3]

4. Jesus Refuted even the Remotest Suggestion of his Divinity

Consider the following incident mentioned in the Bible:
"And behold, one came and said unto him, ‘Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?’
And he said unto him, ‘Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’ "
[The Bible, Mathew 19:16-17]
Jesus (pbuh) did not say that to have the eternal life of paradise, man should believe in him as Almighty God or worship him as God, or believe that Jesus (pbuh) would die for his sins. On the contrary he said that the path to salvation was through keeping the commandments. It is indeed striking to note the difference between the words of Jesus Christ (pbuh) and the Christian dogma of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus (pbuh).



5. Jesus (pbuh) of Nazareth – a Man Approved of God

The following statement from the Bible supports the Islamic belief that Jesus (pbuh) was a prophet of God.
"Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know." [The Bible, Acts 2:22]

6. The First Commandment is that God is One

The Bible does not support the Christian belief in trinity at all. One of the scribes once asked Jesus (pbuh) as to which was the first commandment of all, to which Jesus (pbuh) merely repeated what Moses (pbuh) had said earlier:
"Shama Israelu Adonai Ila Hayno Adonai Ikhad."
This is a Hebrew quotation, which means:
"Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord." [The Bible, Mark 12:29]
It is striking that the basic teachings of the Church such as Trinity and vicarious atonement find no mention in the Bible. In fact, various verses of the Bible point to Jesus’ (pbuh) actual mission, which was to fulfill the law revealed to Prophet Moses (pbuh). Indeed Jesus (pbuh) rejected any suggestions that attributed divinity to him, and explained his miracles as the power of the One True God.
Jesus (pbuh) thus reiterated the message of monotheism that was given by all earlier prophets of Almighty God.
NOTE: All quotations of the Bible are taken from the King James Version.

IV CONCEPT OF GOD IN OLD TESTAMENT:

1. God is One

The following verse from the book of Deuteronomy contains an exhortation from Moses (pbuh):
"Shama Israelu Adonai Ila Hayno Adna Ikhad". It is a Hebrew quotation which means: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord"
[The Bible, Deuteronomy 6:4]

2. Unity of God in the Book of Isaiah

The following verses are from the Book of Isaiah:

(i) "I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour."
[The Bible, Isaiah 43:11]

(ii) "I am Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me."
[The Bible, Isaiah 45:5]

(iii) "I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me."
[The Bible, Isaiah 46:9]

3. Old Testament condemns idol worship

(i) Old Testament condemns idol worship in the following verses:
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:"
"Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God."[The Bible, Exodus 20:3-5]

(ii) A similar message is repeated in the book of Deuteronomy:
"Thou shalt have none other gods before me."
"Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that in the earth beneath, or that is in the water beneath the earth."
"Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." [The Bible, Deuteronomy 5:7-9

Answer 5

Jesus is God's word. God spoke and Jesus came out of him as his word. That makes him part of God, but not all of God.

Every thing that was created, was created through God speaking the word. So everything that was created was created by Jesus, since he is the word of God

When God speaks, the same breath of life, that made Adam a living soul, goes out of him, with his word.

So the word of God itself, is life, and is part of God, because it is pushed out from God with his breath of life. Jesus is that word, so that makes him part of God, but not all of God.

That is why Jesus said that the Father was greater than him.

God was in Jesus' flesh, as the breath of life, and the word of life, but Jesus still was flesh, and subject to all the fleshly desires. That is why he had to overcome that flesh, all the way to the cross. When he did that, the power of life, through obedience to that word, turned his flesh into life, automatically.

When his flesh overcame the devil, all the way to the death, the power of life came back into his sinless flesh, and he came back to life through that power.

He then went back to heaven and went back into the bossom of the Father, where he was, before God spoke him into existance, as his word.

At that moment, all power in heaven and earth was given to him, because the Father was surrounding him, and the Father has all power in heaven and earth.

When Jesus came back to earth, he came back as the fulness of God. He then had all power in heaven and earth. The word of God was given all power. That word still has that power. But it only works through an obedient person.

That is why the word is called the seed. Jesus is God's word, the seed, that gets planted into our hearts, and makes us grow more and more like him, as we put more and more of his word in us.

The more of his word we have, the more of his life we have growing in us, but only when we obey it. We choose how much of him we want.

When we die, if we have obeyed the word and overcome to the death as Jesus did, that same life will raise us back up too.

I hope this helps your understanding. [e-mail]

Answer 6

JC was Jew. Jews have always claimed to be the children of god - The chosen ones.

Let's check this - Adam lost a perfect .ife so JC also lost a "Perfect" life. So we have two loosers.

One must remember that this god is all knowing. So he knew Adam would fail the test, Cain would kill able, the destruction of Soddam and Ghomora was futil, simply an exercise in mass murder, and that the pure and righteous decendants of Noah would bring the world to war and approaching destruction.

In the whiles, this all knowing, omnipotent god has to have his son crucified - to redeem man's sins. All this powerful god had to do was suggest those those who believe would find eternal life in heaven. Those who do not would be condemned. There did not have to be any bloodshed and all.

Remember that JC never claimed tobe anything but the son of god. But all Jews claim that. He was just following dogma.
Remember that it was a Jewiish crowd, inflamed by the Rabbi, who demanded that JC be crucified. It was the romans who carried out the punishment and Pontius Pilot knew JC was not guilty of any crime of insurrection which he had been acused of.

the Romans were not evil men. they were soldiers executing criminals, just as is done today. A state sanctioned execution.

Is it not sort of a contradiction that JC has to lose a "Perfect life" because Adam lost a prefect life. Isn't there something inherently wrong with this postulation?
If JC was god it means that man saw god (Remember that man was made in god;s likeness and image) It is also told in that bible that man is not allowed to see god. Another contrdiction???

Actuall all this christian stuff is just the answer to the questions of origin and afterlife and the existance of the earth and universe. It is, like all other religions, beliefs and such, in existance for the same reason, and has the same credibility and foundation if demonstratable fact as all the others - None whatdoever. It is a figment of the imagination perpetrated through the ages, like all other religions and beliefs, to give the "Leaders" power and wealth. In the end, when all is said and done it comes down to nothing but fairy tales and a greatly duped public.

Remember that you can fool some of the people some of the time and most of the people moat of the sime but you cannot fool all the people all the time. Those you can't fool are labeled "Aethiests".

Answer 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcMzHgq2zRo

Answer 8

All Things are Possible with The Creator.

The Creator could be 100 People IF HE Wanted to.

Huh?
So There.

Answer 9

Yes Jesus IS God he is also the holy Spirit, He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the Trinity.

Answer 10

Jesus is not God, He is His son

Answer 11

You can choose for yourself but according to what the bible says God gave his only begotten son NOT self (John 3:16) (John 14:28) the father is Greater then I If the were equal this would not be written also the bible says jesus was made in god's image and it also says that no man can see god and live so doesn't it make sense think conclude that when people say jesus they saw someone with the exact same qualitie as god and also that they are one in unity meaning they believe the same things and see eye to eye. It's like a parent having a child and someone saying he is the spitten image of you he is not you he's his own self but he looks exactly like you thats what the bible means when it says that but many people twist it to fit what they want it to say there is a very special book entitled WHAT DOES THE BIBLE really TEACH? you will love it.