Is Jesus God?

Last updated: February  2022

In the early hours of Tuesday 20 April (2021), while reading my Bible, I received some revelation on 1 John 4: 2-3 "This is how you will be able to know whether it is God's Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God. But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the enemy of Christ (aka the anti-Christ); you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already."

I thought to myself and asked God why would the humanity of Jesus be the "acid test" that the Spirit is of God, when so many people agree that he was human but dispute his being God; the Muslims and even atheists acknowledge that Jesus was (just) a man, albeit good man, a prophet etc. 

By contrast, many Christians, especially in the West are emphasizing worship of Jesus and indeed praying to Jesus instead of God!

Feeling indignant about how the children of the world are always trying to steal from God's children (Luke 16: 8), especially through covert monitoring, I recalled with "righteous anger" Jesus rebuking the Pharisees in John 8, (not that I'm not comparing myself to Jesus!), when the passage about Jesus' humility in Philippians 2 came to mind.

Paul tells of how Jesus, even though he had the nature of God, did not exalt himself to the status of God but humbled himself: "...he did not think that by force he should try to remain (or become) equal with God" (verse 6). He NEVER commanded his followers to worship him as God. When Jesus said he and God the Father are one (John 10: 30), I believe he was talking about his fellowship and union with the Father, just as he prayed for his followers to be one (John 17: 11, 22-23) by being united to him (John 14: 20 & 15: 4-5). He did tell his disciples to pray to the Father in his name (John 14: 13-14 & 15: 16 & 16: 26). However, this is the trend we're seeing in modern day Christianity - the worship of Jesus replacing worship of God.

In Philippians 2: 7, Paul the apostle says 'he [Jesus] became "like" a human being and appeared in human likeness'.  And going back to our key verse in 1 John 4: 2, John, his close disciple, says that he came "as" a human being; they're both saying this by the Spirit of God. John said in his gospel that Jesus is the Word of God (John 1: 1-2) sent down from heaven and in Psalm 107: 20, it says he [God] sent his word [Jesus?] and healed them. To use an analogy, the message (gospel, word) or the messenger (prophet, apostle, Son cf. Matthew 21: 33-46) is not greater than the one who sent it (1 Corinthians 15: 24, 27-28). Moreover, I really don't think anyone can conclusively argue from Scripture that Jesus said he was God.

Then I thought of the verse in Revelation 19 : 10 where John wanted to worship the angel who told him "Don't do it! I am a servant (one who serves) together with you and your fellow-believers, all those who hold to the truth that Jesus revealed. Worship God! For the truth that Jesus revealed is what inspires the prophets (in some translations, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy)."

So what then is the truth that Jesus revealed? He claimed he was the way to the Father (John 14: 6) and plainly states in John 14: 28 that the Father is greater than him!

Then a passage of Scripture God has been using to convict me came to mind, 1 Timothy 2: 3-6 "This is good and it pleases God our Saviour, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to know the truth. For there is one God, and there is one who brings God and human beings together, the man (there it is again!) Christ Jesus, who gave himself to redeem everyone."  (Today's English Version)

Therefore, this trend in modern day Christianity of worshipping Jesus as God does not seem to be sound doctrine or in line with Scripture or even what Jesus himself taught. Rather, it seems to be a false doctrine from the spirit of the anti-Christ, the one who will set himself up as God, who is already in the world, and has been here for thousands of years (1 John 4: 3).

In fact, I overheard a woman who sat next to me on the bus the previous evening say, "Jesus Christ is a Christian", and wondered if she actually knew what she was saying or if it was the result of some botched "programming".

My concern is that Christians are being deceived by this spirit of error and that, in these "end-times", a man will arise from a "church" background, claiming to be Jesus Christ, and set himself up to be worshipped as God. Many will be deceived because they've already been indoctrinated (programmed) into the belief that Jesus is God, worship Jesus. 

It is crucial that we don't substitute the worship of a man for the worship of God, which perhaps is the hidden agenda of the anti-Christ spirit, and why the apostles and early disciples of Jesus emphasized his coming as a man, taking on the nature of a servant (Philippians 2: 7) which is also stated by Jesus, see Matthew 20: 28; Mark 10: 45; John 13: 1-17. He did NOT make himself equal with God, setting an example for us to follow (cf. John 20: 17). Worshipping a man as God is idolatry (Deuteronomy 6: 4-5).

I believe God, who knows the end from the beginning, wants everyone to come to a knowledge of the truth about sin, righteousness and judgment, by the Spirit of truth who comes from Him (John 16: 7-13). God cares about us and He knows there's this big deception, and will use whoever He can to try and save as many as possible (John 3: 16; 1 Timothy 2: 4-5).