Monthly Archives: May 2009

Jesus as God, Jesus Christ, Theology

Did Jesus Claim to be God? Part 7

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Post Author: Bill Pratt 

There are at least six ways that Jesus claimed to be God.  The sixth way is that Jesus Claimed to Be God by Requesting Prayer in His Name. Again, I will draw heavily from Norman Geisler’s Volume 2 of his Systematic Theology series.

Nobody before Jesus, among Hebrew prophets, ever insisted that people pray in his name.  But that would all change when Jesus entered the scene in ancient Judea and Galilee.

Jesus not only asked people to believe in Him and obey His commandments, but He also asked them to pray in His name: “And I will do whatever you ask in my name.… You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:13–14). “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7). Jesus even insisted, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

The disciples responded by doing just what Jesus told them.

The disciples not only prayed in Jesus’ name (1 Cor. 5:4) but also prayed to Christ (Acts 7:59). Jesus certainly intended that His name be invoked both before God and as God in prayer.

This ends the series of evidences for Jesus claiming both directly and indirectly to be God.  We have yet to cover all of the words of his apostles about his deity.  That will follow in another series of posts.

But before going there, it is fitting to end this series with some words from C. S. Lewis about Jesus’ deity.

Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God.  He claims to forgive sins.  He says He has always existed.  He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time.  Now let us get this clear.  Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be nothing very odd about it.  But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God.  God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world Who made it and was infinitely different from anything else.  And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.

You either believe Jesus or you don’t, but please don’t think that you don’t have to make a choice about him.  If he really is God, then you owe him your very life.

Books of the Bible, Theology

Are There Things God Does Not Know?

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Post Author: Bill Pratt 

Christians believe that God is omniscient, which means that God knows everything—past, present, and future.  In addition, he knows the actual and the possible; only the impossible (the contradictory) is unknown to God, as the logically contradictory is unknowable to anyone.

But there are passages in the Bible that seem to indicate that God is ignorant of certain facts and that he needs to discover them.  One of the best examples is in Gen. 18:20-33, where Abraham bargains with God to save people in Sodom.  God says that he “will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached [him]” (Gen. 18:21).  If this verse is taken in a strictly literal sense, it indicates that God does not know how bad is Sodom without first visiting himself.

So how do we deal with passages like this?  The answer is that we must always interpret any passage in light of all the other texts in the Bible.  They must all integrate together and they cannot contradict each other.

Reading the rest of the Bible, we discover a multitude of verses that speak of God’s unlimited knowledge.  Consider Job 37:16, which says,  “Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge?”  In Ps. 139, David speaks of God’s knowing everything about him, even his words before he speaks them.  In Psalm 147, the writer proclaims that God’s “understanding has not limit.”

God announces things to men before they ever occur (Is. 42:9).  Jesus teaches that God knows every person’s needs before they ever ask (Matt. 6:8).  Every hair on your head is numbered (Matt. 10:30).  Paul proclaims the “depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God” (Rom. 11:33).  The writer of Hebrews reminds us that “nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight” (Heb. 4:13).

There is a strong theme of God’s unlimited knowledge running throughout the Bible.  So, if we understand the Genesis 18 passage to be teaching that God does not know what is happening in Sodom, we run head-long into contradiction.  How can the God who knows every hair on every person’s head not know what’s going on in Sodom?

The answer is fairly simple.  Students of the Bible have traditionally understood passages like Genesis 18 to be anthropomorphic in nature.  This means that the passage is written from a human perspective, rather than a divine perspective.  God already knows how many wicked people are in Sodom, but he wants to teach Abraham something about the wickedness of the people.  God must speak to human beings in terms they can understand, so he sometimes asks questions and expresses uncertainty to elicit appropriate human responses.

Recognizing anthropomorphisms in the Bible is extremely important.  The person who claims that passages like Genesis 18 must be taken literally is knocking an infinite God down to a finite creature.  In addition, once you deny the presence of anthropomorphic language in the Bible, you must admit that God has wings, arms, and eyes; that he repents and forgets things.  The list could go on.  The Bible, like any other literature, employs figurative and metaphorical language.  Failure to recognize this leads a reader into all kinds of serious problems.

General Apologetics

Who Are The Peacemakers?

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In Matthew 5:9 Jesus speaks very highly of those He calls peacemakers.  He says,

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

Occasionally those involved in Apologetics are accused of causing contention and driving away peace.  This is especially true of those who speak out against the heretical teachings of cults.  People sometimes become offended, accuse us of “attacking them” and say we are not being “peacemakers”.  These criticisms got me thinking “who are the peacemakers”?  Who was Christ talking about when He uttered this statement during the Sermon on the Mount?  

In order to answer these questions we need to look at how Christ defined peace.  In John 14:27 Christ says,

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.”

When Christ talks about peace He is talking about something much greater than worldly peace.  In fact, Christ actually tells us as Christians we should not expect to have the peace of the world.  Instead, we should expect the hatred of the world.  John 15:18-19 says,

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

To make things even more complicated in Matthew 10:34 -36 Christ tells us He did not come to bring peace to the world. 

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother in law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

If Christ did not come to bring peace, why did He bless the peacemakers in Matthew 5:9?  How do we reconcile these verses?  The key as I see it lies in the definition of Christ’s peace.  When Christ is talking about peacemakers He is talking about those who bring His peace not the world’s peace.  The world defines peace as lack of contention, no strife, no money problems, etc.  Christ’s peace on the other hand is the eternal peace of being reconciled to God and being assured of your salvation in His kingdom.  This is the peace that only comes from having a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.  Thus a peacemaker is someone who helps to bring others to Christ.  It is someone who shares the Gospel!  This fits well with Matthew 10:34-36.  For sharing the Gospel with others can be like a sword.  It sometimes breeds contention, seperates families and can even bring the hatred of others upon you.  

Are Apologetics Ministries peacemakers?   In my opinion, yes.  Although we make mistakes and occasionally offend people unnecessarily, our ultimate goal is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to bring others to Him.  There are people coming to Christ everyday due to the work of Apologists.  In fact, my wife and I were brought to The Lord through Apologetics and I will be eternally grateful to those peacemakers who helped us.  They certainly helped to bring Eternal Peace into my family!

Darrell

Jesus as God, Jesus Christ, Theology

Did Jesus Claim to be God? Part 6

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Post Author: Bill Pratt 

There are at least six ways that Jesus claimed to be God.  The fifth way is that Jesus Claimed to Have Equal Authority with God. Again, I will draw heavily from Norman Geisler’s Volume 2 of his Systematic Theology series.

In the New Testament, Jesus places his words on an equal footing with God’s.  Following are several examples:

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago … But I tell you” (Matt. 5:21–22) is repeated over and over again. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:18–19). God had given the Ten Commandments to Moses, but Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another” (John 13:34). Jesus promised, “Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law” (Matt. 5:18), while later Jesus said of His words, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matt. 24:35). Speaking of those who reject Him, Jesus confirmed, “That very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day” (John 12:48).

Taken as a whole, there is no question that Jesus  understood his own words to have authority equal to the words spoken by God in the Old Testament.

Put yourselves in the place of the people who heard Jesus speak these words in first century Palestine.  It was shocking and inconceivable for  a Jew to say these things.  Think of all the times that Jesus’ opponents tried to kill him before they finally succeeded.  This mere man, in their mind, continuously equated himself with God, in a way that had no precedent.

You may not believe Jesus is God, but you should be able to understand why his followers and his opponents thought that he was claiming to be.

There is one more line of evidence in this series to consider.  Stay tuned…

Morality, Philosophy

Waterboarding: Does the End Justify the Means?

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Recently, in the news, there has been much discussion of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding.  This technique simulates drowning and some have called it torture.

But most of the discussions I’ve seen on this topic do not debate whether waterboarding is torture or not, but instead debate whether waterboarding of certain terrorists was successful in obtaining key intelligence that foiled terrorist operations.  In other words, did waterboarding work to extract vital information?

I am deeply troubled by this line of questioning because it clearly misses the point.  Whether waterboarding works or not is hardly the issue, especially if you are a Christian.  If you say that waterboarding is acceptable because it generates crucial intelligence, then you are claiming that the end (gathering intelligence) justifies the means (waterboarding).

There are two major categories of ethical systems: deontological (duty-centered) and teleological (end-centered).  Christian ethics are deontological.  Utilitarianism is a form of teleological ethics.

Christians believe that the end does not justify the means (utilitarianism).  We believe that certain actions are morally wrong, and therefore we avoid them; we believe that certain actions are morally right and we have a duty to fulfill them.  The results of an action do not determine whether it is moral or not.  If waterboarding is truly torture, and we as Christians believe torture is wrong, then it does not matter what results it obtains!  It is still wrong.

I am not going to comment on whether waterboarding is torture, as I have not given it enough thought, but that is the key question that Christians ought to be asking.  We should not be talking about whether the results of waterboarding were successful or not.  That is a clearly non-Christian view of ethics that needs to be avoided by all of us in this debate.