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This episode delves into one more of the essentials of the Christian faith. That is, “Who is Jesus?” Who is this person that everyone refers to? Some refer to as a teacher, some call a prophet, some call a divine avatar, some call Messiah, and some call Almighty God. Who is this person and why should we know him? How can we know him? And what does he have to say about himself? The first thing I’d like to talk about is why is it important? What is the importance of knowing who Jesus is? The person of Jesus. There’s a fancy name for this type of study, it’s called Christology.
The main idea of this episode is to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”. This is part 1 of a 7 part podcast series which will discuss a biblically correct Christology, what others have said when answering “Who is Jesus?”, what Jesus’ early followers thought Jesus was and finally, who the Bible says Jesus is. We examine 4 great Christological passages which answer this question definitively. Why is this important? Let’s take a look at a passage in John 8:23-24
“…And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”
And then in John that Same Book, chapter 14, verse 6, the Lord states:
“I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me”
The book of John helps us to understand clearly that there is only one way to Almighty God, and that is through the person of his Son. We’ve talked a little bit about this on podcasts in the past, about our sin condition, about the necessity for having that removed. As it says in the book of Isaiah, for your sins have separated you from your God. So that he cannot hear. What must we do so that the Lord would hear our prayer when we turn to him? Well, those sins must be removed. Who is it that removes those sins? It’s the person of Jesus.
The main idea of this episode is to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”. This is part 1 of a 5 part series which will discuss the importance of a correct Christology, what others have said when answering “Who is Jesus?”, what Jesus’ early followers thought Jesus was and finally, who the Bible says Jesus is. We examine 4 great Christological passages which answer this question definitively. Why is this important? Let’s take a look at a passage in John 8:23-24
“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
There are all kinds of ideas about who Jesus is. Some people even try to go so far as to say he didn’t exist, he was a mythological person or mythological creature. But in all of these, that of course is the most far out of all ideas simply because there are so many extra biblical sources, I.e. sources outside the Bible that declare the existence of Jesus that were back from the time of contemporaries of Jesus, one of which is the historian Josephus, who was a Jewish man and not a Christian at all and reported on the existence of Jesus and even his execution at the hands of Pilate. Well, let’s take a look at a few of these. The first idea that I’d like to take a look at is the idea that he’s a good prophet. Let’s take a look at what Islam has to say in the Quran.
“And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said: "O Children of Israel! I am the messenger of Allah (sent) to you, confirming the Law (which came) before me, and giving Glad Tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad." But when he came to them with Clear Signs, they said, "this is evident sorcery!”
It is clear from this passage in the Quran that the Muslims believe Jesus to be merely a good prophet. They believe him to be one of the prophets. But what about all of those passages? In fact, the one passage, the passages we first read in John chapter 8 Jesus says “unless you believe that I am (that is God Almighty) the one whom He has sent, you will die in your sins.” That is, you will die in separation from Almighty God and will go to separation which the Bible calls Hell.
And then a few chapters later in the Gospel of John chapter 14 Jesus says that there is no way to the Father but through Himself, not through some imaginary character named “Ahmad” who appears on the scene 550 years later, nor through another prophet or anyone else, but through Jesus himself. How can Jesus possibly be a good prophet and yet make the claim that He is God Almighty and that there is no way heaven but through Himself? We know that Jesus couldn’t be a good prophet if He claims deity for himself (which He did) when in reality He was only a ‘good prophet’ as Mohammed falsely asserted. Jesus claim would be blasphemous and would be disqualified as a ‘good’ prophet but would actually make him a false prophet…unless of course, He is and was exactly who He said He was.
One of the things Muslims try to say is that in all situations where God’s divine word of Scripture disagrees with the Quran, the dutiful Muslim must abide by the Quran and reject God’s word, the Bible by accusing it of corruption. The glaring problems here with the Quran are:
I cover the authority and reliability of scripture in greater detail in my book “7 Essentials for Bible Literacy”. This “Who is Jesus?” series will cover Jesus resurrection in more depth as it is the cornerstone event of the Christian faith and ultimately proves that Jesus was who He said He was, He accomplished what He said He accomplished and He will accomplish what He said He will accomplish in the future. Before we go into that topic, let’s first take a look at a few other erroneous ideas of who Jesus is.
There are some that believe that Jesus is a created being, specifically Michael the Archangel, and that would be the group known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. A man named Charles Taze Russell began a Bible study. He came out of the restoration movement of the mid 19th century, which was very apocalyptic and had already amassed a history of false predictions of when Jesus would return (I document several dozen of these on our Jehovah’s Witnesses page.
Russell picked up in the same vein and began to talk about Jesus returning in a certain date, 1914, and then he falsely predicted several other dates. Charles Taze Russell picked up and carried on where the restoration movement left off.
One of the things he believed is that all of Christianity got it wrong. And he was there to restore the church to the earth. Very similar to Joseph Smith’s idea that he was going to restore the church to the earth. One of the things that Charles Taz Russell would state is that but Christians had it wrong in believing in the Trinity.
We talked about the Trinity on an earlier podcast. The idea of one God and Father, one God, the Father, one God, the Son, one God, the Holy Spirit, one God in three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. So what he believed he found and those that sort of gathered up around him, which is now today known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in Brooklyn, New York. . The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus is Michael the Archangel. in First Thessalonians, chapter 4, verse 16. The command of Jesus Christ for the resurrection to begin is described as the archangel’s call.
“At 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (RS), the command of Jesus Christ for the resurrection to begin is described as “the archangel’s call,” and Jude 9 says that the archangel is Michael. Would it be appropriate to liken Jesus’ commanding call to that of someone lesser in authority? Reasonably, then, the archangel Michael is Jesus Christ....And Jude 9 says that the archangel is Michael. Would it be appropriate to liken Jesus commanding call to that of someone lesser in authority? Reasonably, then, the Archangel Michael is Jesus Christ."
It is an egregious error to assume that Michael the Archangel, based on two scriptures that are completely taken out of context, could even come close to the person of Jesus. In Colossians chapter one, we read that Jesus created all things. All things were created for Him through him and by Him. Now, that would include Michael the Archangel and any other angel there might have been, all of which were created through Jesus according to the Bible. Charles Taze Russell, and shortly after him, Judge Rutherford would deny this clear teaching of the Apostle Paul in the Scriptures. Both men would, for the most part, coalesce their ideas of Jesus according to what they thought they found here and there while reading the Bible. These erroneous beliefs have shaped the entire Unitarian theology and Christology of Jehovah’s Witnesses today.
There is another version of Jesus as a “created being” which is Jesus as one of billions of created (birthed) gods. There’s a group of people that believe that he’s one of the many sons of a god on a planet near a star named Kolob. Now, that idea comes to us from Joseph Smith, who, along with Brigham Young, after him, sort of founded and built what we would call Mormon doctrine. So let me read you a little bit from the pearl of great price in the Book of Abraham. This is what the Mormons have to say about who Jesus is.
“And I saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them was nearest unto the throne of God; and there were many great ones which were near unto it; 3 And the Lord said unto me: These are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy God: I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest."
From this passage of Joseph Smith’s writings which the Mormons revere as their ‘holy scriptures”, we see that the main god of Mormonism lives on a planet near a star named Kolob. The idea behind this god is that he started out as a man, grew into God, and then had millions of spirit babies which also took possession of human baby bodies, grew into men and women and then became gods themselves, one of which was named Jesus, another was named Lucifer, who eventually became the devil.
This false Christ is also refuted by the bible when the Apostle Paul writes to the Colossians and makes it clear that all things are made by through and for Jesus. This means if there was a planet near a star named Kolob (there isn’t) But if there was, all of those planets and stars would have been created by the Almighty God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus, through Jesus and for Jesus. We have a number of scriptures that we’ll go through in this session and in subsequent sessions where we’ll see what the Bible has to say about who Jesus is, what he’s done, what he’s accomplished and compare it to a number of the false ideas of Jesus among the cults and world religions.
No one receives eternal life and eternal presence with God (from Whom all good things come – James 1:17), by belonging to the right church, denomination, world religion, or by having a particular world view. Rather only those who trust in the Lord Jesus (preached by the Apostles in the Bible) for their own sin. We will not trust in a Savior for sins that we either don’t believe we have or that we think aren’t deserving of hell. But the Bible says that ALL have sin and the wages of that sin is eternal separation from God (death). The good news is that the Bible says that you can know that YOU have eternal life. Click the button below to see if you are genuinely saved from your sins according to the Bible:
