How can you say that Jesus was God when the Bible clearly indicates that Jesus and God are two separate beings?


Email Received:

I read your commentary Was Jesus God? but I disagree 100%. Jesus is at the right hand of God in heaven (Acts 7:55,56 and Col. 3:1). This statement is very simplistic but very clear that there are two, not one.

How about the book of John 8: 7-18, where Jesus wants to make it very clear that Jesus and God are two separate beings. It reads "It is written in your law, that the testimony of TWO men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the father that sent me beareth of me." If Jesus and God are one in the same, Jesus wouldn't have been able to make that statement.

How about Rev. 5:7: And he (the lamb, Jesus) came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne (God). If God and Jesus are, in fact, one in the same, God certainly made it difficult and confusing to believe. You think God could make that mistake? I doubt it.


Ted's Response:

You evidently do not understand the Trinity of God, where all three components are equally God. However, you will not begin to comprehend the complexity of God until you do. In your limited thinking, something cannot be two things at once; therefore, Jesus was only a man, and that's all. In actuality, and very simplistically speaking, Jesus is the physical manifestation or projection of God.

Centuries before Jesus came, the prophet Isaiah wrote that the son to whom the virgin would give birth would be called "Immanuel," which means "God with us" (Isaiah 7:14). This also was reiterated by an angel in Matthew 1:23. That is what Jesus was: "GOD with us." Isaiah even included these two descriptions of the coming Messiah: "Mighty God" and "Everlasting Father" (Isaiah 9:6). This should not be surprising, since the Messiah (the Son of God and Savior to come) would be God; and, at will, He could be coexistent with the Father.

We know that God created the universe. Speaking of Jesus the Son, Paul wrote, "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him" (Colossians 1:16). Furthermore, "in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe" (Hebrews 1:2). Jesus, as a member of the Trinity of God, was an integral Architect and Maker of Creation and everything in it. As such, He was, and continues to be, God. The fact that Jesus was a carpenter on earth, I believe, merely was an indicator that, on a much grander scale, He was the "Carpenter" of all things in existence.

It is a fact that, at will, God can divide into his separate component parts—any and all of which continue to be God. And since you picked the book of John, consider John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John was referring to Jesus as being the Word of God; and then John indicated that He, Jesus, was God.

Furthermore, John also wrote, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14). John stated clearly that the Word was God (1:1) and that the Word became flesh (1:14); that is, the Word, God, took the form of a man, Jesus, who dwelled here on earth. John knew Jesus personally, and everything else he wrote about Jesus makes complete sense to me; so I will take John at his word.

You pointed to Revelation 5:7; however, it appears that you have disregarded the verse just prior to that: "Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth" (Revelation 5:6). Before taking the scroll from God the Father, the Lamb, Jesus, is seen to be situated in the center of the throne, occupying the same location and position as God, the Father. This would be consistent with Jesus' statements, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30) and "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (14:9b). At any time, and at their will, they can coexist together as One.

Then, after projecting outward from the throne, having dissociated Himself from the Father (but still continuing to be God), Jesus, the Lamb, is seen to take the scroll from the Father seated on the throne. In fact, in addition to God the Lamb (Jesus) and God the Father coexisting in the same place and at the same time, Revelation 5:6 shows that God the Holy Spirit (the seven spirits, or sevenfold Spirit, of God—also in 1:4) was there as well. This verse clearly portrays a multiple manifestation of God.

Thus, even the Holy Spirit—the sevenfold Spirit of God—has multiple facets. Therefore, it should not be surprising that God, as a whole, has multiple, probably infinite, components—one of which is God the Son, Jesus. God, whenever He wishes, can occupy more than one location at the same time. Just because we cannot do that does not mean that God cannot do it.

I do not believe that God makes mistakes. Therefore, I do not believe that He was in error when He called His Son (Jesus) God here: "But about the Son he [God the Father] says, 'Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom'" (Hebrews 1:8). This was a reference to a psalmic verse (Psalm 45:6).

Within that same passage in Psalm 45, the writer also stated, "You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever" (Psalm 45:2). The "most excellent of men" to whom the psalmist (as led by God) was referring was the coming Messiah: Jesus, the Son of God. Even the psalmist understood that this person would be both man and God, concurrently.

I understand that you do not believe Jesus could have been (and continues to be) both man and God, at the same time. Yet, God made it very clear throughout the Bible that He is a multiple (and infinite) being. I do not find it at all difficult or confusing to comprehend how God can be one, two, or multiple beings at any given time. Just as predestination and free will both are true, at the same time, so Jesus was and is both man and God, at the same time. More about the singular and multiple nature of God can be found in my singular and multiple section.


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