Posted on by Andries van Niekerk

Is Jesus the Most High God? – List of articles on this website

The conclusion, that the Bible makes a distinction between God and Jesus, and therefore that Jesus is not God, given how the New Testament uses the title “God,” came as a surprise to me personally.  To confirm my conclusion, I studied various books of the New Testament. These studies are available as articles:

Summary of all articles
Christ is divine but also distinct from God and subordinate to the Father.

Specific Bible Books

Book of Revelation
Does this book present the Son as equal with the Father?

Colossians – Part 1
The roles of God and Christ in salvation and creation

Colossians Part 2
This article discusses the view of Jesus in the letter to the Colossians; is Jesus God? Is He equal to the Father? Or is He a created being?

Specific Bible Passages

Philippians 2
Philippians 2:5-11 describes four chronological stages of Christ’s life – before He became man – His human life – His death – and His exaltation after His ascension. Do these verses describe Him as God? If Jesus is not God, why will every knee bow to Him?

1 Corinthians 8:6
1 Corinthians 8:6 shows that God is the Father alone. Trinitarians counter by saying that Jesus is God because (1) He co-created with God, (2) “God” and “Lord” are synonyms, and (3) this verse divides the words of the Shema between the Father and the Son.

Did Jesus claim to be God?
In this verse, the Jews accused Jesus of claiming to be God. Based on Jesus’s debate with the Jews in this chapter, what did Jesus claim to be? Is verse 33 correctly translated? Or did Jesus, in John 10:36, claim to be THE Son of God?

I and the Father are one.
This article discusses three statements by Jesus that are often thought to mean that He is God Himself, namely “I and the Father are one,” “The Father is in Me, and I in the Father,” and “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 10:30; 38; 14:9).

Christ’s Origin and Pre-existence

Only-Begotten
As the “only-begotten” (monogenēs), He is the only being generated from the being of the Father, or should it be translated as “only unique,” which excludes the idea of generation?

Firstborn of all Creation
Is He literally of figuratively the firstborn (Col 1:15)? Does that mean that He is part of creation?

God’s Son created all things.
All things, including creation, judgment and salvation, are from God, the Father, but through His Son.

Jesus in the Old Testament
Since the Son ‘always’ existed and existed in the ‘form’ of God, and since God is invisible, the God who was seen in the Old Testament is the One we know as Jesus.

Jesus is not God but subordinate to God.

Jesus is not God.
In the Trinity theory, God is one Being but three equal Persons. However, this article shows that the Bible always distinguishes – not only between the Son and the Father – but between the Son and God.

The Almighty is the Father.
The title, “the Almighty,” appears ten times in the New Testament and always refers to the Father alone.

The Son is subordinate to God.
The Son always was and still is subordinate to the Father. Everything that He has, He received from His Father.

If Jesus is not God, why do we worship Him?
We do not “worship” Jesus. The Greek word translated as “worship” (proskuneó) has a wide range of meanings. It is only translated as “worship” if we first assume that Jesus is God. To say that He is God because we “worship” Him is a good example of circular logic.

The translation of John 1:1

Introduction
This verse is very important in the controversy over the deity of Christ. 

The Word was a god.
This is how Jehovah’s Witnesses translate this verse. This article lists seven objections.

Theos is a count noun.
To defend their translation, Jehovah’s Witnesses argue that “God” is a count noun. Is this a valid this argument?

The Word was God.
This translation interprets theos as definite, but John 1:1c uses theos in a descriptive sense, meaning that the Word was like God.

Is Jesus called God?

What does theos mean?
The Bible refers to Jesus as theos but that Greek word has a wide range of meanings. One possible meaning is reflected by the English word “God,” which refers only to the Ultimate Reality. In what sense of theos does the New Testament refers to Jesus?

The Only Begotten God
The text is in dispute. Many ancient manuscripts of John 1:18 refer to Jesus as son and not as theos.

“My Lord and my God!“
In what sense of theos did Thomas address Jesus as ho theos (John 20:28)?

Theos in John’s gospel
A study of the word theos in John’s gospel. Did John use the term for both the Father and the Son?

Paul never refers to Jesus as God.
The only possible exception is Romans 9:5 but the translation depends on punctuation, which is interpretation.

Letter to the Hebrews
Hebrews 1:8 refers to Jesus as theos but the next verse shows that He is not God because it says that God is His God.

Summary
To translate theos as “God” when it refers to Jesus is an application of the Trinity doctrine; not proof there-of.

The Word of God

Who is the Word?
Some propose that the logos in John 1:1 is not a person but a personification of God’s eternal plan. 

Why is He called “the Word?”
Everything that the creation receives from God, including existence, sustenance, knowledge, and salvation, flows through His Son.

Is John’s Logos the same as Philo’s?
Philo, a Jewish philosopher who wrote some decades before John, included the Logos of Greek philosophy in his interpretation of the Old Testament.

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