Jesus: Not God or Literal Son of God
Jesus is not God, nor is he the literal son of God. All four Gospels record Jesus as saying, “Blessed are the peacemakers; they will be called sons of God.” The word ‘son’ cannot be accepted literally because in the Bible, God apparently addresses many of His chosen servants as ‘son’ and ‘sons.’ The Hebrews believed that God is One and had neither a wife nor children in any literal sense. Therefore, it is obvious that the expression ‘son of God’ merely meant ‘Servant of God’; one who, because of faithful service, was close and dear to God, as a son is to his father. Later, Christians who came from a Greek or Roman background misused this term. In their heritage, ‘son of God’ signified an incarnation of a god or someone born of a physical union between male and female gods.
Here are some of Example:
📖This can be seen in Acts 14: 11-13, where we read that when Paul and Barnabas preached in a city of Turkey, pagans claimed they were gods incarnate. They called Barnabas the Roman god Zeus, and Paul the Roman god Hermes.
📖John 8:40
As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.
📖John 7:28
Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him.
📖John 7:33
Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to ?the one who sent me.
📖John 8:42
If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me.
📖Matthew 24:36
But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
- Furthermore, the New Testament Greek words translated as ‘son’ are ‘pias’ and ‘paida’ which mean ‘servant,’ or ‘son in the sense of servant. These are translated to ‘son’ in reference to Jesus and ‘servant’ in reference to all others in some translations of the Bible. So, consistent with other verses, Jesus was merely saying that he is God’s servant.
Additional problems with Trinity
Additional problems with Trinity To a Christian, God had to take human form to understand temptation and human suffering, but the concept is not based on any clear words of Jesus. In contrast, God does not need to be tempted and suffer in order to be able to understand and forgive man’s sins, for He is the all-knowing Creator of man. This is expressed in the verse ?
📖Exodus 3:7
And the Lord said: ‘I have surely seen the affliction of My people that are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; for I know their pains.
- God forgave sin before Jesus’ appearance, and He continues to forgive without any assistance. When a believer sins, he may come before God in sincere repentance to receive forgiveness. Indeed, the offer to humble oneself before God and be saved is made to all humankind.
📖Isaiah 45:21-22, Jonah 3:5-10
And there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside Me. Look to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.
- Biblically, people can receive forgiveness of sins through sincere repentance sought directly from God. This is true at all times and in all places. There has never been a need for the so-called inter cessionary role Jesus plays in attaining atonement. The facts speak for themselves, There is no truth to the Christian belief that Jesus died for our sins and salvation is only through Jesus. What about the salvation of people before Jesus? Jesus’ death brings neither atonement from sin, nor is it in any way a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
Theological Implications of Speculative Questions about Jesus’ Body
| Question | Implications |
|---|---|
| What happened to his foreskin after his circumcision Luke 2:21? | Did it ascend to heaven, or did it decompose as with any human piece of flesh? There is no clear answer in Christian theology regarding the fate of Jesus’ foreskin. |
| During his lifetime what happened to his hair, nails, and blood shed from wounds? | Did the cells of his body die as in ordinary human beings? If his body did not function in a truly human way, he could not be truly human as well as truly God. Yet, if his body functioned exactly in a human way, this would nullify any claim to divinity. It would be impossible for any part of God, even if incarnate, to decompose in any way and still be considered God. The everlasting, one God, in whole or in part, does not die, disintegrate, or decompose: ‘For I the Lord do not change.’ (Malachi 3:6) There is no clear answer in Christian theology regarding the fate of Jesus’ hair, nails, and blood. These questions are largely speculative and have no bearing on the core tenets of Christianity. |
| Did Jesus’ flesh dwell in safety after his death? | Unless Jesus’ body never underwent ‘decay’ during his lifetime he could not be God, but if it did not undergo ‘decay’ then he was not truly human. |
The Bible says that God is not man.
📖Numbers 23:19
God is not a man.
📖Hosea 11:9
For I am God, and not man.
📖John 8:40
Jesus is called a man many times in the Bible
‘a man who has told you the truth.
📖Acts 2:22
Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know.
📖Acts 17:31
He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed.
📖Tim. 2:5
The man Christ Jesus
The Bible says that God is not a son of man.
📖Numbers 23:19
God is not a man nor a son of man.
Jesus as the “Son of Man” in the Bible
📖Matthew 12:40
So will the son of man be.
📖Matthew 16:27
For the son of man is going to come.
?Matthew 28
Until they see the son of man coming in His kingdom.
📖Mark 2:10
So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority.
📖John 5:27
Because he is the son of man.
- In the Hebrew scriptures, the ‘son of man’ is also used many times speaking of people (Job 25:6; Psalm 80:17; 144:3; Ezekiel 2:1; 2:3; 2:6-8; 3:1-3). Since God would not contradict Himself by first saying He is not the son of a man, then becoming a human being who was called ‘the son of man’, he would not have done so. Remember God is not the author of confusion. Also, human beings, including Jesus, are called ‘son of man’ specifically to distinguish them from God, who is not a ‘son of man’ according to the Bible.
The Bible says that Jesus denied he is God
📖Luke 18:19
Jesus spoke to a man who had called him ‘good,’ asking him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
📖Matthew 19:17
And he said to him, ‘Why are you asking me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.
- Jesus did not teach people that he was God. If Jesus had been telling people that he was God, he would have complimented the man. Instead, Jesus rebuked him, denying he was good, that is, Jesus denied he was God.
The Bible says that God is greater than Jesus
📖John 14:28
My Father is greater than I.
📖John 10:29
My father is greater than all.
- Jesus cannot be God if God is greater than him. The Christian belief that the Father and son are equal is in direct contrast to the clear words from Jesus.
Jesus never instructed his disciples to worship him
📖Luke 11:2
When you pray, say Our Father which art in heaven.
📖John 16:23
In that day, you shall ask me nothing. Whatsoever you ask of the Father in my name.
📖John 4:23
The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
- If Jesus were God, he would have sought worship for himself. Since he did not, instead he sought worship for God in the heavens, therefore, he was not God.
Jesus worshipped the only true God
📖John 17:3
That they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
📖Luke 6:12
He continued all night in prayer to God.
📖Matthew 20:28
Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve.
How did Jesus pray to God
📖Matthew 26:39
He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father.
📖Hebrews 5:7
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
- Who was Jesus praying to when he fell on his face? Was Jesus crying in tears to himself pleading to be saved from death? No man, sane or insane, prays to himself! Surely the answer must be a resounding ‘No.’ Jesus was praying to ‘the only true God.’ Jesus was the servant of the One Who sent him. Can there be a clearer proof that Jesus was not God.
The Quran confirms that Jesus called for the worship of the Only True God
📖Quran 3:51
It is Allah Who is my Lord and your Lord; then worship Him. This is a Way that is straight.
- Disciples did not believe Jesus was God. The Acts of the Apostles in the Bible details the activity of the disciples over a period of thirty years after Jesus was raised to heaven. Throughout this period, they never referred to Jesus as God. For instance, Peter stood up with the eleven disciples and addressed a crowd saying 👇
📖Acts 2:22
Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.
📖Matthew 12:18
For Peter, Jesus was a servant of God.
📖Acts 3:13
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.
📖Acts 3:26
God raised up his servant.
- When faced by opposition from the authorities, Peter said. 👇
📖Acts 5:29-30
We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus.
📖The disciples prayed to God just as they were commanded by Jesus in Luke 11:2 and considered Jesus to be God’s servant. ‘they raised their voices together in prayer to God. ‘Sovereign Lord,’ they said, ‘you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.’ (Acts 4:24)
📖Acts 4:27
Your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
📖Acts 4:30
of Your holy servant Jesus.
📖Quran 19:30
I am indeed a servant of God.
The Bible says that Jesus was God’s servant
📖Behold, my servant, whom I have chosen, in whom My soul is well pleased.’ (Matt 12:18) Since Jesus is God’s servant, Jesus cannot be God.
The Bible says that Jesus could not do anything by himself
📖John 5:19
The son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing.
📖John 5:30
I can of mine own self do nothing.
- The Bible says that Jesus did not consider himself equal with God. and that God performed miracles through Jesus & Jesus was limited in what he could do:
📖Matt. 9:8
But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
📖Acts 2:22
A man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst.
📖Acts 10:38
He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
- If Christ were God, the Bible would simply say that Jesus did the miracles himself without referring to God. The fact that it was God supplying the power for the miracles shows that God is greater than Jesus.
Limitations of Jesus’ Miracles
📖Mark 8:22-26
One time when Jesus tried to heal a blind man, the man was not healed after the first attempt, and Jesus had to try a second time.
📖Mark 5:30
Once a woman was healed of her incurable bleeding. The woman came up behind him and touched his cloak, and she was immediately healed. But Jesus had no idea who touched him:‘ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?
📖Mark 6:5
He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.
Quite obviously, someone with such limitations cannot be God. The power of miracles was not within Jesus.
The Bible says that at times of weakness angels strengthened Jesus
- It is important to note that God does not need to be strengthened, as He is all-powerful. Humans, on the other hand, require strengthening. Therefore, if Jesus needed to be strengthened, it would suggest that he is not God
📖Luke 22:43
An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him – in the garden of Gethsemane.
📖Mark. 1:13
Then the devil left him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.
📖Mark 1:13
And he was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to him.
📖Luke 22:42
The Bible says that Jesus wanted God’s will to be done. ‘not my will but Yours be done.
📖John 5:30
‘I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.
📖John 6:38
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
- Are some members of the coequal Trinity subservient, and less than equal, to other members? Even though they have different wills (‘I do not seek my own will’), do they obey without question the others’ commands (‘the will of Him who sent me’)? Jesus admits to subordinating his own distinct will, yet according to the Trinitarian doctrine they should all have the same will. Should one of the triune partners have to forgo his own will in favor of the will of another member of the Trinity? Should not they all have the exact same will?
Jesus and God: Two Distinct Beings
📖John 8:17-18
I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father.
📖John 14:1
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
- If Jesus was God, He would not have regarded God’s testimony as separate from his own.
The Bible says that Jesus is subordinate to God
📖1 Corinthians 11:3
Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
📖1 Corinthians 15:28
‘When he has done this, then the son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
- The Bible says that Jesus grew in wisdom & learning. But God is All Wise & does not need to learn Jesus grew in wisdom, but God is all wise ‘Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.’ (Psalms 147:5) ‘And Jesus increased in wisdom.’ (Luke 2:52) God does not need to learn, but Jesus learned: ‘Although he was a son, he learned obedience’ (Heb. 5:8)
Jesus had limited knowledge
📖Mark 13:32
No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father.
- But God’s knowledge is infinite. Since Jesus did not know, he was not all-knowing, and therefore, he cannot be the God whose knowledge is all-encompassing
The Bible says that Jesus was tempted, but God cannot be tempted
📖Heb. 4:15
Tempted in every way – just as we are.
📖James 1:13
for God cannot be tempted by evil.
- Since God cannot be tempted, but Jesus was, therefore, Jesus was not God.
The Bible says that Jesus’ teachings were from God, not from himself
📖John 7:16
So, Jesus answered them and said, ‘My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me.
- Jesus could not have said this if he were God because the doctrine would have been his.
The Bible says that Jesus died according to Christian beliefs, but God cannot die
📖God cannot die. Romans 1:23 and other verses say that God is immortal. Immortal means, ‘not subject to death.’ This term applies only to God.
The Bible says that Jesus lived because of God
📖John 6:57
‘I live because of the Father.
- Jesus cannot be God because he depended on God for his own existence.
The Bible says that Jesus’ powers were given to him
📖Matt 28:18
‘All power is given unto me.
- God is all-powerful, no one gives God His powers, otherwise He would not be God because He would be weak. Therefore, Jesus could not be God.
The Bible says that Jesus was taught & commanded by God
📖John 8:28
‘As my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.
📖John 12:49
‘The Father, who sent me, he gave me a commandment.
📖John 15:10
‘I have kept my Father’s commandments.
- No one can teach God, otherwise God cannot be All-Knowing and would owe His teacher. Since Jesus was taught and commanded by God, Jesus cannot be God himself. The teacher and the student, the commander and the commanded are not one.
The Bible says that God made Jesus’ ‘Lord’!
📖Acts 2:36
‘God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ.
- Lord’ is used in many ways in the Bible, and others beside God and Jesus are called ‘Lord.’ For example ?
| Group/Individual | Scripture Reference |
|---|---|
| Property Owners | Matthew 20:8 |
| Heads of Households | Mark 13:35 |
| Slave Owners | Matthew 10:24 |
| Husbands | 1 Peter 3:6 |
| Son Calling Father Lord | Matthew 21:30 |
| Roman Emperor | Acts 25:26 |
| Roman Authorities | Matthew 27:63 |
- Lord’ is not the same as ‘God.’ ‘Lord’ (the Greek word is kurios) is a masculine title of respect and nobility used many times in the Bible. If Jesus was God, then for the Bible to say he was ‘made’ Lord would make no sense.
The Bible says that Jesus was lower than angels.
📖Hebrews 2:9
‘But we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus.
God, the Creator of angels, cannot be lower than His own creation, but Jesus was. Therefore, Jesus was not God.
The Bible says that Jesus called the Father ‘my God.
📖Matt. 27:46
My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?
📖John 20:17
‘I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.
📖Rev. 3:12
‘the temple of my God, the name of my God, the city of my God comes down out of heaven from my God.
- Jesus did not think of himself as God, instead Jesus’ God is the same as ours.
The Bible says that God cannot be seen.
📖1 John 4:12
But Jesus was seen by others ‘no man has seen God at any time.
- The Bible says twice that Jesus was accused of being God. But he denied it: According to the Bible, on only two instances the Jews opposed Jesus on the basis that he pretended to be God or equal with God. Had Jesus, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, claimed to be God, he is likely to have been opposed on this basis more frequently. Because in these two instances, when charged, in the one case, with making himself God, and in the other, with making himself equal with God, he denied the charges. In reply to the charge of being an equal with God, he says immediately:
📖John 5:19, 30
‘The son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do’; and directly after ‘I can of mine own self do nothing. In answer to the charge of making himself God, he appeals to the Jews in substance thus: Your own Scriptures call Moses a god, and your magistrates gods; I am surely not inferior to them, yet I did not call myself God, but only the ‘son’ of God (John 10:34-36). This is unlikely to have been Jesus’ actual response. Hastings in ‘The Dictionary of the Bible’ says, ‘Whether Jesus used it of himself is doubtful.’ Grolier’s encyclopedia, under the heading ‘Jesus Christ,’ says, ‘it is uncertain whether the Father/Son language (Mark 18:32; Matt. 11:25-27 Par.; John Passim) goes back to Jesus himself.
- A University of Richmond professor, Dr. Robert Alley, after considerable research into newly found ancient documents concludes that: ‘The (Biblical) passages where Jesus talks about the Son of God are later additions. what the church said about him. Such a claim of deity for himself would not have been consistent with his entire lifestyle as we can reconstruct. For the first three decades after Jesus’ death Christianity continued as a sect within Judaism. The first three decades of the existence of the church were within the synagogue. That would have been beyond belief if they (the followers) had boldly proclaimed the deity of Jesus. Assuming Jesus did say that he was ‘son’ of God. What did it mean? We first need to know the language of his people, the language of the Jews to whom he was speaking.
The Bible says God had many sons
📖Luke 3:38
Adam: ‘Adam, which was the son of God.
📖Exodus 4:22
Jacob is God’s son and firstborn: ‘Israel is my son, even my firstborn.
📖2 Samuel 7:13-14
Solomon: ‘I will be his father, and he shall be my son.
📖Jeremiah 31:9
Ephraim: ‘for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
📖Deuteronomy 14:1
Is God’s firstborn, common people are called the sons of God: ‘Ye are the children of the Lord your God.
📖Pslam 2:7
I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
- Most people think there are no other verses that contradict or give equal divine sonship to other persons in the Old or New Testament. For Jesus to be called son of God, does not make him a true son of God, otherwise Adam, Jacob, Ephraim and many more should also be considered as sons of God as such they should be worshiped too according to such method.
Additional Information
AlmightyAllah is the highest and most knowledgeable, and the attribution of knowledge to him is the safest. Right from, Almighty Allah and wrong from me and Satan, Arrogance is not only a sign of insecurity, but also a sign of immaturity. Mature and fully realised persons can get their points across, even emphatically without demeaning or intimidating others.
