Tag: The Most High

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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 the articles below
The Bible provides much evidence for Christ’s divinity but also that He is distinct from God and subordinate to the Father. We must consider both sets of evidence. This article summarizes the articles on this website about the nature of Christ.

Specific Bible Books

Book of Revelation
This article analyzes the relationship between God and Jesus in the book of Revelation, including how it uses divine titles. It concludes that the Son is subordinate to the Father, but also belongs with the Father when compared to the created universe.

Colossians Part 1
The roles of God and Christ in the letter to the Colossians – Are we saved by Christ or by God? Who created all things and who reconciled all things to God; God or Christ Jesus?

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).

Origin and Pre-Existence

Only-Begotten Son
As the “only-begotten,” Jesus is the only being generated from the being of the Father. But some argue that monogenēs should not be translated as “only begotten” but as “only unique.” This article motivates why “only begotten” is correct.


Firstborn Of All Creation
This article argues that Colossians 1:15 refers to the Son as the firstborn in a literal sense, namely that He literally was the first to exist. But since He was “born,” He was not created. Rather, He, Himself is “the Beginning” (Col 1:18; Rev 3:14) of all creation.

Jesus existed before his birth.
The Son always existed in the form of God and was equal to God, but was sent by God, emptied Himself, and descended from heaven to be born as a human being.

God created through His Son.
God created all things through Jesus Christ. As begotten of God, the Son was not created. Since the Son also created time, He ‘always’ existed. But of the reality beyond time – the source of the universe – we know nothing.

Jesus in the Old Testament
Jesus always existed for God created all things through Him. We must, therefore, find Jesus in the Old Testament (OT). God is invisible but was seen in the OT. This article finds evidence of two divine beings in the OT, implying that one of them is 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. In contrast, the Bible always distinguishes between God and Jesus. For example, God is invisible but Jesus is visible, Jesus calls God His God, He is the image of God, and He is at God’s right hand.

Jesus is the Word of God.
Christ is the “Word of God” because everything that the creation receives from God, including existence, sustenance, knowledge, and salvation, flows through His Son. Also, through Christ, the adoration and thanksgiving of the creation flow back to God.

The Almighty is the Father.
The title, “the Almighty,” appears ten times in the New Testament. This article shows that the New Testament refers to the Father alone as “the Almighty.” Some verses make an explicit distinction, e.g., “the Lord God the Almighty AND the Lamb” (Rev 21:22).

The Son is subordinate to God.
The Son was subordinate to God before His birth and still is now after His ascension. Everything that the Son has, both as a human and eternally, He received from His Father, including His authority to raise the dead and to judge, and the Fullness of Deity.

If Jesus is not God, why must we worship Him?
We may worship only God, but we must also worship Jesus. Does that mean that He is God? The English word “worship” implies worshiping God. The Greek word that is translated as worship (proskuneó) does not require the one worshiped to be God.

List of all worship verses in the New Testament.

Is Jesus called God?

Summary of these articlesThe basic meaning of the Greek word translated as “God” (theos) is an immortal being with supernatural powers. To translate theos as “God” when it refers to Jesus is an application of the Trinity doctrine; not proof there-of.

What does theos mean?
The Greek word theos has a wide range of meanings, including false gods, God’s people, and the Almighty. The English word “God” refers only to the Almighty. This article analyses in what sense the New Testament refers to Jesus as theos.

John 1:18 – The Only Begotten God
Many ancient manuscripts of John 1:18 refer to Jesus as son and not as theos. In any case, the word “God” is an interpretation for theos means “god” and is only translated as “God” when the translator thinks that it refers to the Ultimate Reality.

John 20:28 – “My Lord and my God!“
Why did Thomas address Jesus as ho theos (literally, the god) in John 20:28? Thomas could not have called Jesus “my God” because Jesus never taught that He is God and because the disciples, at the time, did not think or teach that Jesus is God.

Is Jesus “God” in John’s gospel?
The title “God” appears more than 100 times in John’s gospel and it consistently distinguishes between God and Jesus. Only 3 instances possibly refer to Jesus as God, but these instances are debatable. And John wrote that the Father is Jesus’ God.

Romans 9:5
Paul never refers to Jesus as God. He always distinguishes between Jesus and God. The huge variation in the translation of Romans 9:5 disqualifies it as evidence that Jesus is God. It depends on punctuation which, in the Bible, is interpretation.

Hebrews 1:8
Hebrews 1:8 refers to Jesus as theos but the next verse shows that He is NOT God for it says that God is His God. Furthermore, Hebrews 1:1-2, 6 makes an explicit distinction between Jesus and God and represents Jesus as subordinate to God.

John 1:1

Introduction
John 1:1 is very important in the controversy over the deity of Christ. This article introduces the articles that discuss its translation, including alternative translations, and the meanings of “the Word,” “the beginning,” and “with God.” 

The Word
The normal meaning of logos is “message.” Some propose that the logos in John 1:1 is not a person but a personification of God’s eternal plan. In Greek philosophy, the logos was the intermediary through whom God created all things. 

The Word was a god.
John 1:1b includes the article (the) before theos (God), but John 1:1c omits it. Jehovah’s Witnesses, therefore, translate John 1:1c as: “the Word was a god.” This article lists seven objections to this translation.

Theos is a count noun.
To defend their translation, “the Word was a god,” Jehovah’s Witnesses argue that “God” is a count noun and count nouns must always be either definite or indefinite, even when used qualitatively. This article evaluates this argument.

The Word was God.
The translation, “the Word was God,” interprets theos as definite, but John 1:1c uses theos in a descriptive sense. In other words, it says that the Word was like God; He is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15; cf. Heb 1:3).

This translation interprets theos as definite, but John 1:1c uses theos in a descriptive sense. In other words, the Word was like God, as the Bible elsewhere states, He is the image of the invisible God and the exact representation of His nature.

Is John’s Logos the same as Philo’s Logos?
Philo, a Jewish philosopher who wrote a few decades before the NT was written, included the Logos of Greek philosophy in his interpretation of the Old Testament and described the Logos as very similar to the Logos in the New Testament (Jesus Christ). This article shows these parallels and explains why they exist.