Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!spool2.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!christian From: edc!fraser@uunet.uu.net (Fraser Orr) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Questions on who Jesus is (was "Missed point") Message-ID: Date: 16 Jan 91 09:07:33 GMT Sender: hedrick@aramis.rutgers.edu Organization: Atex European Development Centre Lines: 43 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , ta00est@unccvax.uncc.edu (elizabeth s tallant) writes: |> Whoever says that the Bible does not establish the divinity of Jesus has |> not been reading the Bible. In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, |> the Word, who is actually Jesus Christ, is identified not just as Savior, Son, |> or whatever, but as God Himself. |> |> "In the beginning was the Word" - the Word has always existed |> "...and the Word was with God..." - the Word is a part of God |> "...and THE WORD WAS GOD." - self-explanitory I find it very irritating when someone arogantly claims "Whoever says that the Bible does not establish the divinity of Jesus has not been reading the Bible." I read the Bible, and this verse says not that Jesus was God, on the contrary it ways the Word was God. "Ah but," I hear all my trinitarian friends saying, "it says in verse 14 that Jesus is the word." Again, when I read the Bible it says "and the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us". Now it is extremeely clear from the context that the flesh in this verse refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, and so it says that at his birth the Word became flesh. It does not say that Jesus Christ and the Word were the same thing. In verse 1, the word "Word" is of course logos in Greek. This does not refer to a simple gramatical unit, but to a message, a logical, reasoned communication. This logos is the Word of God both written and spoken. It was in the beginning, it was with God in the beginning, and it was God, because it conveyed God in whole. It was the Word that framed the world (Heb 11:3, Gen 1:3ff), It is the same word given in the scriptures. Now, starting from Gen 3:15 and the events following the fall God has been promising to send a saviour for his people. All these promises were fulfilled in the comming of the Lord. In this way, the promises of God, the word, were made flesh being fulfilled in the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ. This beautiful fourteenth verse declares to all who are willing to here that God had fully provided for mankind, just as he promised, in the man, the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not trying to establish that Jesus Christ was not God, although this is what I believe the Bible teaches. What I am trying to say is that this verse, so often used as a clear statement of the divinity of Jesus, most certainly does not clearly state this. Reading what the verse actually says yields a much more profitable interpretation. ==Fraser Orr +44 506 416778x206 UseNet: {uunet,sun}!atexnet!fraser JANet: fraser%edc@cs.hw.ac.uk