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July 26, 2006 First, a correction is in order. One of the pitfalls of a magazine like UK is that the editor leaves the content entirely up to the author and that includes grammatical errors, punctuation errors and typographical errors. Additionally, the editor makes no claim about the accuracy of the facts presented in the articles. If someone is entirely out to lunch with their facts, or makes an error in recording the facts, it's their own problem and that is what happened to me. In my last article, "The Fictional God of Jehovah," I said that German doesn't have a J or a W and that is simply wrong. What I really meant to say was that German doesn't have an equivalent to J nor does it use V or W the same way that English does. That is why the fictional name "Jehovah" became what it did in spite of the original Hebrew which phonetically should have been Yahoweh or something similar. This effectively illustrates the difficulty of translating ancient works into modern languages. If you don't know what you are doing you can make a lot of mistakes. And that brings us to the subject of the current article. A major cornerstone of Christian faith is the belief that Jesus was divine. This point is important because if Jesus were not God then the entire gospel story becomes moot. Without a divine savior, the "sacrifice for the sins of the world" would not be perfect and would therefore be rendered meaningless. That the doctrine of redemption rests on the divinity of Christ is obvious, yet this very belief is barely supported in the scriptures which are also supposed to be divine. So, let's begin our excursion by immediately jumping into the text which is supposed to be the "real" story of Jesus. A few scriptures will suffice to illustrate the point that Jesus himself never claimed to be equal to God. In fact, these examples make it clear that Jesus himself said he was less than God and anyone less than God cannot be God or equal to God by default. In other words, if Jesus is not equal to God, he is not God. A good example is found in Mark 10:18 where the writer has Jesus say, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." So, apparently Jesus himself was not good enough to be God and therefore imperfect. Wouldn't you expect God in the flesh to be perfectly good? I would also expect God to retain his nature when assuming a physical form especially his knowledge. In fact, most believers assume that God is, indeed, all-knowing. Yet when he was questioned about his own return, Jesus denied having any knowledge of it. In Mark 13:32 the writer quotes Jesus as responding to his disciples' inquiry by saying, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." This verse implies that Jesus himself was not godly enough to know anything about his own return. Of course, if he were divine this information would not be a mystery to him. Jesus also denied his ability to do anything alone which meant he wasn't omnipotent, a necessary characteristic of God. In John 5:30 the writer has him say, "By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me." Later in John 8:28 Jesus says, "I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me." Presumably, of course, if Jesus were divine he would already know everything and therefore could learn nothing from the Father. Additionally, he would be able to do anything he wanted since divinity necessarily implies omnipotence. Finally at the end of his life we have the bizarre episode of God praying to himself. In Luke chapter 22 we find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane praying on the Mount of Olives about his upcoming death. In Luke 22:42-43 Jesus prays, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Of course, if Jesus was God this verse would mean that God (Jesus) is praying to himself. It also sets up the odd situation of having God (Jesus) not knowing his own will or at least of God having two opposing wills. This oxymoron, of course, would be impossible with a real deity. The nature of godliness would preclude any lack of knowledge since God is supposed to be both omnipotent and omniscient. This story becomes even more strange when we read about the actual death of Jesus. In Luke 23:46 the writer has Jesus say, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Does this mean that the spirit of Jesus was not the same as the Holy Spirit? If it is the same spirit, then how could the Holy Spirit be the third part of the trinity if it doesn't have its own nature? If it wasn't the same spirit then we have a contradiction since the spirit of Jesus would exist separately from the spirit of God and therefore would not be part of God. Again, the entire concept of God praying to himself would completely undermine the eternal characteristics of omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence. As can be seen from just these few references, the belief that Jesus was God is suspect. A true deity would know what he was doing at all times, would be present everywhere at the same time and would be powerful enough to overcome any obstacle including acting under his own volition. Yet these few cited scriptures clearly illustrate the fact that Jesus had shortcomings just like every other human. As such he was no more divine than anyone else and the deification of this wandering wise man happened long after he died. As with many holy men of the ancient world, the rumors, stories and legends constructed after the fact were all designed to emphasize his credibility and authority by elevating him to the status of God. The actual truth is more mundane and the factual evidence will remain incomplete since Jesus himself never wrote anything nor did he leave behind any other credible artifacts that would shed further light on the matter. This unlikely omission certainly seems to be contrary to the intentions of a God who really cared about humanity. ------------ About the author: Keith Cantrell lives in a small town in Oregon where he was a fundamentalist, born-again, evangelical Christian for over 35 years. After many years of questioning and research he has finally become an agnostic. He has written a book entitled "The World's Most Dangerous Book" and it tells the history and origins of the Bible. It's the only book on the market that takes the Bible from cover to cover, Genesis to Revelation and explores who wrote it, where it came from and how it all got put together. It's the 21st century. Isn't it time you knew the truth about the Bible? This book is available at Barnes and Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks and Amazon.com. Read it and tell me what you think! After all, I could be wrong! Email: kwcantrell@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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