Salaam Aleychum,
Jesus never was God, and never will be. In the Bible, God declares: �Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.� (Isaiah 43:10). |
Indeed this is as true a statement as I've ever heard-- in reference to Isa. 43:10. There is only one God. As is written in the shmah-- Shma Israel, YHVH elohenu, YHVH, Echad.
Or, in anglicized form-- Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One.
Which brings up the question why would Jesus be considered God by the writer- John, who wrote the gospel of John?
In numerous places in the gospel of John, Jesus is said to be the Word-- John 1:1, and how that the Word was God. Moreover, that the "Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." John 1:14.
Then, in John 8:58, Jesus responds to the hebrew leadership's statement regarding Abraham-- Before Abraham was, I AM.
This is indeed the same name that God spoke to Moses in the book of Exodus when asked-- Whom shall I say sent me? And God responds-- tell them, I AM that I AM has sent you.
What strikes me isn't that Jesus said this, it's the response of the leadership after his statement-- they picked up stones to stone him because he'd blasphemed. They clearly understood something we've either missed or are ignoring.
Then, in John 9, after healing the man blind from birth, Jesus declares-- I AM the Light of the World.
In John 10, he declares-- I AM the Good Shepherd, referring back to Ezekiel 34, and God's promise to provide a good shepherd Himself.
He also declares himself as the Door to God's Sheepfold.
At one point, he's receiving complaints regarding some of his miracle workings, and he responds by telling the leadership, and his hearers-- I and the Father are One.
His hearers get it, and immediately respond with trying to stone him-- again for blasphemy. When he asks-- why, they respond, because you being a man, make yourself out to be God.
In John 11, just before raising Lazarus, declares to Mary and Martha-- I AM the Resurrection and the Life.
Then in what strikes me as a coup de gras, Jesus tops it all by declaring-- I AM the Way, I AM the Truth, I AM the Life, No man comes to the Father, But through me.
Then, I'm also curious what Isaiah 44:6 means.
I read that God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah, and saying that He will come, then he references another, calling him My Redeemer, YHVH of Hosts.
""Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And
his Redeemer, the LORD of
hosts: 'I [am] the First and I [am] the Last; Besides Me [there is] no
God."
Please explain these.
to me they seem rather clear that Jesus is more than simply a man.
As Paul said in Philippians 2:6-8-- "who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
"
Or, in Colossians 2:9, where Jesus is identified as having the "fullness of the Godhead in bodily form."
salaam