I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
The challenge being that Jesus could only be one of these three:
- Lunatic: Jesus was not God, but he mistakenly believed that he was.
- Liar: Jesus was not God, and he knew it, but he said so anyway.
- Lord: Jesus is God.
3 comments:
However, C.S. Lewis' Trilemma is flawed!
Because it misses out a 4th choice:
The one that Jesus himself claimed to be!
Jesus never ever claimed to be
Almighty God!!
Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be
the Messiah, the Son of GOD!
That is the fourth choice!
Jesus was not Almighty God.
He was indeed who he claimed to be:
The Messiah, the Son of the Living GOD!
And we, his followers, must believe that, and also believe that his Father is the Only True GOD!!
(John 10:36) Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
(John 17:3) And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
(Mat 26:63-64) But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. 64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
(Mat 27:42-43) He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. 43 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
(John 19:7) The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
(John 20:31) But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
(1 John 4:15) Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
(1 John 5:5) Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
For more info please visit:
The Human Jesus
Sorry Adam - If you think Jesus is not God then you miss a basic tenant of the Christian faith. If your emphasis is that He is the Son and not the Father, fine. But you say He is not God and you are wrong.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (John 1:1,14)
Thomas said to him [the resurrected Jesus], "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28)
But about the Son he [God] says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever." (Hebrews 1:8)
Rick ...
all the verses you posted are explained scripturally in the video.
Please view: The Human Jesus
Post a Comment