Did Jesus claim deity?

 Did Jesus claim deity?

By Richard P. Joseph

I just got done reading a book by Jabeel Qureshi who was born in the United States to a devout Pakistani Muslim family.  His mission in life was to proselytize for Islam and did it with a passion, oftentimes using scripture to fool christians into questioning their own faith.  Unfortunately, most Christians did not have a strong hold on scripture and were bamboozled by Qureshi.  The problem for Qureshi is that he finally ran into someone who actually knew scripture and a long friendship ensued culminating in Qureshi becoming a Christian.   One of Qureshi’s go to topics was that of Jesus’ divinity.  He would quote the scriptures about Jesus simply claiming to be “the son of God”, not actually God himself.  Unfortunately, many Christians have a hard time defending their position that Jesus is God in the flesh.  So, did Jesus actually claim to be God incarnate?

Personally, I have a hard time finding where Jesus didn’t claim to be God.  While all cults, including Islam, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others all deny the deity of Jesus, I am the complete opposite.  Either you are new to studying the bible and haven’t yet grasped the meaning of scripture yet or you are spiritually blind and simply cannot see the truth if it smacks you in the face, but you will soon see that Jesus is indeed God in the human flesh. 

While reading the gospels you will find that Jesus never used the Old Testament term “Thus says the LORD” like many of the prophets used.  Jesus said that he only does what he “sees” the father do.  This implies that he is not receiving messages, he is actually in such close proximity to the father that he sees what God is doing.  That is how the Trinity works.  The priests often questioned Jesus’ authority to do what he was doing.  The Jews in his day were only allowed to advance by virtue of authority given to them by a more senior priest.  Only those at the top of the heap could actually expound on scripture, the others lower down could only quote scripture.  Jesus not only quoted and expounded on scripture, he actually spoke scripture.  In Matthew 9 the priests scolded Jesus for forgiving a crippled man’s sin.  The priests actually had a right to do this as it is true that only God can forgive a man his sins.  Jesus’ answer and action on this occasion was monumental leaving no question about the fact that he is truly God incarnate.  Jesus answered them by saying:

Matthew 9   5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

Everyone there knew that both were impossible.  So, in order to prove that He is truly God and could forgive sins, He told the crippled man to stand up and walk.  The man immediately got up, took hold of his bed, and walked.  

This is just one of many clear stories that prove Jesus’ deity. 

Another one is in the first chapter of John;

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In John chapter 8 the pharisees were once again questioning Jesus’ authority and he answered:

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”

Calling yourself by God’s character name would have been a clear case of blasphemy in those days but Jesus once again claimed that he was the Eternal Being with clear and unambiguous language.  Jesus clearly told them that he existed before Abraham and that he is the eternal “I Am”. 

In Revelation 22:13 Jesus made the same statement that he is the Eternal One (YHVH):

  

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Or in other words again; I am the Eternal Existent One. 

Jesus constantly made statements and performed miracles that only God can do such as walking on water, healing the sick, commanding the natural elements what to do, creating fish and loaves and rising from the dead.  

 Jesus was 100% human and 100% God.  Anyone who has trouble finding that in the New Testament probably hasn’t even read it.  In fact the Old Testament called him Immanuel, which means God is with us.  Jesus even claimed that he was heir to the throne of God and that he would sit at the right hand of the power of God.  If this isn’t clear enough, I saved the best for last.  Revelation 21:23 is a verse that most people do not grasp.  

And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Envision an actor on a stage.  It is dark except where the actor is because the person in the control room above the audience is flashing a spotlight on the actor.  The power is not in the actor, it is in the light.  The light is merely shining on the actor reflecting off of him.  However, when John was describing the New Jerusalem he said that he saw that power and it wasn’t coming from a spotlight, it was coming from the Lamb.  In other words,  the power and glory of God was not shining onto Jesus, it was coming from Jesus.  He is God.  The Shekinah glory of God illuminates from Jesus Christ because he is divine.   

The entire New Testament is packed with proof that Jesus is God incarnate.  To miss it almost proves you are illiterate, or in the case of the Muslim, completely brainwashed.  In the end, Jabeel Qureshi became an evangelical Christian but unfortunately was diagnosed with stomach cancer and passed away at a young age.  His testimony lives on and his books have had a huge impact on many Muslims seeking the truth.  Glory be to God in the highest. 

All Israel shall be saved

 All Israel shall be saved

By Richard P. Joseph

Romans 11:26a

and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written:...

Romans 11:26 is one of the most misguided and misinterpreted  scriptures in the bible.   Because of massive Zionist influence in our bible schools and because of the practice of pulling bible verses out of original context, we now have most pastors teaching that this verse means that all of physical Israel will be saved.  Of course, nobody would ever complain about modern day “Jews” being saved, but to take scripture out of context really does have consequences.  It will be difficult to explain the whole of this subject in this short article but as always, keep reading scripture and use these articles to prompt you in your search.  I will give you a few clues but please read Romans again and pay attention.  I simply cannot understand how anyone ever got the idea that all physical Jews will someday become Christians, by reading Romans, especially if they ever read any other part of the New Testament.  So who really is “All Israel”?

The problem with pulling single verses out of context, you will have an incredibly high chance of misinterpretation.  Reading through the book of Romans you cannot possibly miss the idea that Paul, who is using a lot of expensive ink and parchment, to explain and that is that;

Romans 9      6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s [d]descendants, but: “[e]through Isaac your [f]descendants shall be named.”

The entire book is about explaining this one verse.  The entire letter is all about changing from the law to the grace of Jesus Christ.  

Romans 7:6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the [h]Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

But like I always say, this isn’t new with Paul, it is all throughout the New Testament.  

John 1     12 But [m]as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who [n]believe in His name, 13 who were [o]born, not of [p]blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.

John the Baptist said the same thing:

Matthew 3      7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for [g]baptism, he said to them, “You [h]offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance; 9 and do not assume that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you that God is able, from these stones, to raise up children for Abraham. 10 And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is being cut down and thrown into the fire.

As you can clearly see, the apostle John and John the Baptist explain this same doctrine showing a movement from Judaism to grace or from physical to spiritual.  The true seed of Abraham was Jesus and true Jews are those that understood that faith is the avenue to God, not the law. 

Romans 2  28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from people, but from God.

Paul goes on and on describing what a true Jew is, so to make it easier I will give you an equation as a guide.  

Believing Jews + Believing Gentiles = True Israel

So when Paul says that “All Israel shall be saved”, he is talking about all true believers, both Jew and Gentile.  The whole point of his book, and all of his other letters, is to drive home this point which he called the mystery that has been hidden until now (meaning in his day).  The mystery, meaning that the redemption of all people has occurred.  God is the God of all people, it is not a Jewish religion.  The Jews were tasked with keeping the oracles of God until the mystery was revealed and the world was redeemed.  That all was finished with the coming of the messiah.  That is why Jesus claimed on the cross that “It is completed”.  The transition occurred from AD30-70 and all Israel was and is saved.

Romans 16   25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, 26 but now has been disclosed, and through the Scriptures of the prophets, in accordance with the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; 27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.

The Third Temple

 The Third Temple

By Richard P. Joseph

In the 10th century Before Christ, Solomon built the first temple.  It was built with elegance and opulence and was considered one of the wonders of the ancient world.  Israel was in its hey-day when riches flowed and silver was as common as stones.  It was the highpoint of Israel’s greatness.  It didn’t last long as you can guess.  Sin and idol worship soon replaced the worship of YHVH.  

Once idol worship became the norm in Israel, God did what he promised to do in Deuteronomy, and punished his people.  He sent in the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, who completely destroyed the temple, slaughtered the people, and carried many off into captivity.  After 70 years they were brought back and a second temple, though much inferior to the first temple, was built.  When Herod the Great became (vassal to Caesar)king over Israel, he greatly improved the temple and made it a magnificent building once again.  Jesus was born during the time of Herod’s (second) temple.  

The funny thing about all of this, is that during the Babylonian captivity, the prophet Ezekiel was given a vision of a new temple in “the land of Israel”.  Oddly, he never mentions Jerusalem.  And in this city was a marvelous temple built.  The weird thing about all of this is that, when the second temple was built soon after, it was not the temple that Ezekiel described.  Also, nowhere does Ezekiel even tell anyone to build it, he just describes a glorious temple somewhere in the land of Israel but never instructs anyone to build it.  Every detail of the temple and the city and the people are described but nothing like that ever physically happened.  So where is that temple or when will it be built?

Well, if you listen to any futurist pastor who is thoroughly indoctrinated in zionist propaganda, they will tell you that the chosen people (modern day rabbinical Jews living in Israel) will soon build that temple which will usher in the end times scenario.  However, if you ask someone who understands the bible in its true context, they will tell you that this is clearly a spiritual temple.  In fact in Ezekiel 48:35 he says that the name of that new city is  “The Lord Is Here”.  

Revelation 22:3  3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

That is the same thing that John  said in Revelation when describing that same temple.  John’s vision was the fulfilment of Ezekiel’s vision.  Just read Revelation 21-22 and compare it with Ezekiel 40-47.  

Ezekiel caps his vision off by describing a small stream coming out of the threshold of the temple and flowing eastward.  This stream begins to swell and grow deeper as it goes, eventually becoming a small river, and then a mighty river.  That doesn’t sound like a physical place, it sounds to me like a spiritual movement sort of like when Jesus told his apostles to go and make disciples of all nations starting in Jerusalem then to Samaria and to Galilee and then to the ends of the earth.  It sort of sounds to me like what exactly happened when Jesus came and became the fulfilment of the old law and established the new covenant in his blood, but do not take my word for it, let’s see what Jesus himself said.

John 2:19-20

19 Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

20 Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”

Today we hear of mentally deranged people identifying as the opposite sex or as an animal or some other weird thing.  Jesus did something like that too!  Jesus identified as a temple!  He told the Jews that they would destroy that temple and in three days he would raise it up again.  He did raise it up and it became Ezekiel’s third temple complete with a stream flowing out of it and it became a river that I swim in daily.  What goes around comes around and just as the Jewish priests couldn’t understand this metaphor, we still have today most of the pastors of this earth still not getting it.  They are waiting for modern rabbinical Jews to build that third temple.  Nothing has changed for those that are spiritually blind.  Jesus is the Third Temple.  Nothing else needs to be built and we don’t have to wait.  The light of God fills the temple and the Lamb is the Lamp. 

The Crusades Were Right (The Lie You've Been Told)