(part 1 of 7): Bible writers
Both Christians and Muslims believe in Jesus, love and honor him. However, they do not agree on the question of his divinity.
Fortunately, if we consult the Bible and the Quran, this question can be resolved because both the Bible and the Quran teach that Jesus is not God.
It is clear that the Quran denies the divinity of Jesus, so we don’t need to spend as much time explaining it.
The Bible, on the other hand, is misunderstood by many people; they feel that the belief in Jesus as God is so widespread that it must have come from the Bible. This article clearly shows that the Bible does not teach this.
The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is not God. In the Bible, God is always someone other than Jesus.
Some will say that Jesus said or did something here on earth that proves that he is God. We will show that the disciples never thought that Jesus could be God. And these were the people who lived and traveled with Jesus and learned firsthand what he said and did. The Bible also tells us in the Acts of the Apostles that the disciples were led by the Holy Spirit. If Jesus were God, they would have known for sure. But they didn’t. They continued to worship the one true God whom Abraham, Moses and Jesus also worshiped before them. (see Acts 3:13).
All Bible writers believed that God was not Jesus. The idea that Jesus was God did not become part of the Christian faith until the Bible was written down, and it took several centuries for it to really become part of the Christian faith.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the authors of the first three gospels, did not believe that Jesus was God (see Mark 10:18 and Matthew 19:17). They believed that he was the son of God in the sense of a righteous person. And many others have been called sons of God in this sense (see Matthew 23: 1-9).
Paul, who is believed to be the author of fourteen or fifteen letters in the Bible, also did not believe that Jesus was God. According to Paul, God first created Jesus and then He used Jesus as a model, after which he created the rest of creation (see Colossians 1:15 and 1 Corinthians 8: 6). Similar approaches can also be found in the Letters to the Hebrews and also in the Gospel and the Letters of John, which were written about seventy years after Jesus. In all these scriptures, Jesus is still God’s creature and therefore submissive to God forever (see 1 Corinthians 15:28).
Now that Paul, John, and the Hebrew writer believed that Jesus was the first creature of God, some of what they wrote shows that Jesus was a pre-existing powerful being. This was often misunderstood in the sense that he should have been God. But to claim that Jesus is God contradicts everything that these authors have written. Although these authors later believed that Jesus was greater than all other creatures, they still believed that he was less than God. In fact, John quotes Jesus, who said: „… the father is taller than me.“ (John 14:28). And Paul explained that the head of every woman is her husband, the head of every man is Christian, and the head of Christ is God. (see 1 Corinthians 11:
Therefore, if one says that there is something in these scriptures that teaches that Jesus is God, it means misusing and misquoting what these authors say. If you have written anything, you have to understand it in the context of your belief that Jesus was the first creature of God, as you said clearly.
From this we can see that some of the later Bible writers saw something higher in Jesus, but none of the Bible writers believed that Jesus was God. The Bible clearly teaches that there is only one true God, the one Jesus worshiped (see John 17: 3).
In the continuations of this article, we want to further explore the Bible in depth and deal with the passages that are mostly misused as evidence of the divinity of Jesus. We will show – with God’s help – that these do not mean what they are often used as evidence for.
(part 2 of 7): Acts of the Apostles
Jesus has done many great miracles and no doubt he said a lot of wonderful things about himself. Some people use what he said and did as evidence that he was God. But his original disciples, who lived with and traveled with him and were eyewitnesses to what he said and did, never came to this conclusion.
The book of Acts in the Bible describes what the disciples did over a period of thirty years after Jesus was lifted up to heaven. In all this time they never spoke of Jesus as God. They use the title God steadily and consistently for someone other than Jesus.
Peter rose with the eleven disciples and addressed the crowd, saying:
“You men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, the man, shown by God among you with deeds and miracles and signs that God through did him among you, as you know yourself. ” (Acts 2:22).
So it was God who did the miracles through Jesus to convince people that Jesus was sent by God. Peter saw no evidence in the miracles that Jesus should be God.
In fact, the way Peter describes God and Jesus clearly shows that Jesus is not God, because he separates the title of God from Jesus. Let us take the following passages, for example:
“God raised this Jesus …” (Acts 2:32)
“So now know that God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36)
In both passages, the title God appears completely separate from Jesus. So why would he do this if Jesus were God?
For Peter, Jesus was a servant of God. Peter said,
“God raised up His servant Jesus …” (Acts 3:26).
The title servant refers to Jesus. This is very clear from a previous passage when Peter explained:
„The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus.“ (Acts 3:13).
Peter must have known that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never spoke of a Triune God. You have always spoken of God as the One God. Here, as in Matthew 12:18, Jesus is God’s servant. Matthew confirms that Jesus is the same servant of God mentioned in Isaiah 42: 1. According to Matthew and Peter, Jesus is not God, but a servant of God. The Old Testament repeatedly says that God is alone (e.g. Isaiah 45: 5).
All the disciples of Jesus took this view. We are told in Acts 4:24 that the believers prayed to God and said:
„… they raised their voices with one accord to God, saying, Lord, you have made the heavens and earth, the sea, and all that in them is made. ‚“
It is clear that the One to whom they prayed was not Jesus, because two verses refer to Jesus as
„… your holy servant Jesus, whom you have anointed.“ (Acts 4:27).
If Jesus were God, his disciples would have said this clearly. Instead, they continued to preach that Jesus was God’s Christian. We are told in Acts:
“and they did not stop teaching and preaching in the houses every day in the temple and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.” (Acts 5:42).
The Greek word „Christ“ is a human title. It means „anointed“. If Jesus were God, why did his disciples keep calling him titles for human beings like servants and Christians of God, and why did they consistently use the title God only for the one who raised Jesus? Did they fear people? No! They courageously preached the truth and feared neither prison nor death. When faced with resistance from authority, Peter said,
“You have to obey God more than people. God our fathers raised Jesus … ”(Acts 5: 29-30).
Did they miss the Holy Spirit? No! They were supported by the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2: 3, 4: 8, and 5:32). They simply taught what they had learned from Jesus – that Jesus was not God, but rather God’s servant and Christian.
The Quran confirms that Jesus was the Messiah (Christian) and that he was God’s servant (see the Holy Quran 3:45 and 19:30).
(part 3 of 7): Jesus is not All-Powerful and Not All-Knowing
Christians and Muslims agree that God is All-Powerful and All-Knowing. The Gospels show that Jesus was not Almighty and All Knowing, because in some ways he reached his limits.
Markus tells us in his gospel that Jesus was unable to do wonderful things in his hometown except for a few. „And he couldn’t do a single act there, he put his hands on only a few sick people and healed them.“ (Mark 6: 5). Mark also tells us that once when Jesus tried to heal a blind man after the first attempt, he was not healed and Jesus had to try a second time (see Mark 8: 22-26).
Although we love and respect Jesus very much, we must understand that he is not Almighty God. The Gospel of Mark also shows us that Jesus also had limits in his knowledge. In Mark 13:32, Jesus himself stated that he did not know when the last day came, but only the Father alone knew this (see also Matthew 24:36).
Therefore, Jesus cannot have been the All-Knowing God. Some will argue that while Jesus knew when the last day would arrive, he chose not to say it. But that complicates matters even more. Jesus could also have said that he knows but does not want to reveal it. Instead, he says he doesn’t know. We have to believe him. Jesus wouldn’t have lied.
The gospel of Luke also shows us that Jesus had limited knowledge. Luke said that Jesus‘ wisdom increased (Luke 2:52). And we also read in Hebrews (Hebrews 5: 8) that Jesus learned obedience. But God’s knowledge is always perfect, and God never learns new things. He always knows everything. So if Jesus learned something new, it proves that he could not have known everything beforehand and therefore he was not God.
Another example of Jesus‘ limited knowledge is the fig tree story in the Gospels. Markus tells us as follows: “And other days since they left Bethany, he was starving. And he saw a fig tree from afar that had leaves; then he went in to see if he could find anything on it. And when he got there he found nothing but leaves; because it was not the time for figs. ” (Mark 11: 12-13).
From these verses it becomes clear that Jesus‘ knowledge was limited in two things. First, he didn’t know that the tree bore no fruit until it got there. Secondly, he did not know that it was not the time of year when figs could be expected on a tree.
Could he have become God later? No! Because there is only one God, and He is God from eternity to eternity (see Psalm 90: 2).
Someone could say that Jesus was God, but he took the form of a servant and therefore his knowledge was limited. Well, that would mean that God would have changed. But God does not change. God said this in Malachi 3: 6.
Jesus was never God and never will be. In the Bible, God explains: „No God is made before me, so no one will be after me.“ (Isaiah 43:10).
(part 4 of 7): The greatest command in the Bible and in the Quran
Some will say that this whole discussion about the divinity of Jesus is unnecessary. They say the most important thing is to recognize Jesus as your personal Savior. On the contrary, in order to be saved, the Bible writers emphasized that it is necessary to understand who exactly God is. A mistake here would violate the first and greatest of all commands in the Bible. This command was confirmed by Jesus – peace be upon him – when asked by a scholar of the Laws of Moses. “One of the scribes came to him, who had listened to them arguing with each other. And when he realized that he had answered them nicely, he asked him: ´What is the noblest command before all? ´ Jesus answered him: The noblest command is this: «Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, is alone the gentleman,
Notice that Jesus quoted the first commandment from Deuteronomy 6: 4-5. Jesus not only confirmed that this command is still valid, but he also said that it is the most important of all commands. If Jesus thought he was God himself, why didn’t He say it? The man who had interviewed Jesus understood this, and what the man said next clearly shows that God is not Jesus, because he replied: ‚Master, you really spoke well,‘ said the man. ‚He is only one and is none other than Him …‘ ”(Mark 12:32).
If Jesus were God, why did He say this to the man? Instead, he made the man speak of God as someone other than Jesus, and when he saw that the man had spoken wisely, he even said. “But when Jesus saw that he answered reasonably, he said to him, ‚You are not far from the kingdom of God.’” (Mark 12:34)
If Jesus knew that God was a trinity, why did he not say it? ? Why didn’t he say that God is one of three or three in one? Instead, he declared that God is One. Those who truly follow the path of Jesus should follow him in this declaration of God’s unity. You shouldn’t add the word „three“ where Jesus didn’t say it.
Does salvation depend on this command? Yes, the Bible says! Jesus made this clear when another man approached to learn from him (see Mark 10: 17-29). The man fell on his knees and said to Jesus: „‚Good master, what should I do to inherit eternal life?“ But Jesus said to him: „What do you approve of me? Nobody is good than God alone.´ ”(Mark 10: 17-18).
In saying this, Jesus clearly made the difference between himself and God clear. Then he went on to answer the man how to get salvation. Jesus said to him: „But if you want to go to life, keep the commandments.“ (Matthew 19:17, see also Mark 10:19).
It is noteworthy that according to Jesus, the most important of all commandments is to know that God is the only God. Furthermore, Jesus emphasized this in the Gospel of John. In John 17: 1, Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed by turning to God as the Father. Then in the third verse he said the following to God: „But this is eternal life that they will recognize you who are only true God and whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.“ (John 17: 3).
This undoubtedly proves that if people want to attain eternal life, they must know that the one whom Jesus prayed for is the only one, True God, and they must know that Jesus was sent by the True God . Some say that the father is God, the son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. But Jesus said that the Father alone is the only true God. Those who truly follow Jesus should follow him in that too. Jesus had said that his true followers are those who adhere to his teachings. He said: „If you will stick to my speech, you are really my disciples.“ (John 8:31). His teaching is that people should continue to obey the commandments, especially the first commandment, which emphasizes that God is alone,
We love Jesus, but we cannot love him as God. Nowadays, a lot of people love Jesus more than God. This is because they see in God someone who is vengeful, who wants to punish them, and they see Jesus as their Redeemer, who saved them from God’s curse. But God is our only savior. According to Isaiah 43:11, God said, „I, I am the LORD, and there is no Savior except Me.“ And in Isaiah 45: 21-22 God said, “Have I not done it, the LORD? Otherwise there is no god but me, a just God and Savior, and there is none except me. If you turn to me, you will be saved, ends of all worlds; because I am God and no one else. ”
The Quran confirms the first commandment and thus addresses all of humanity (see Quran 2: 163). And God declares that true believers love Him more than anyone or anything (Quran 2: 165).
(part 5 of 7): Paul believed that Jesus is not God
In his first letter to Timothy, Paul wrote: „I testify before God and Christ Jesus and the chosen angels that you should keep these instructions …“ (1 Timothy 5:21).
It is clear from this that he did not use the title God for Jesus Christ, but for someone else. In the following chapter he again made a distinction between God and Jesus when he said: „I command you before God, who makes all things alive, and before Christ Jesus, who testified under Pontius Pilate the good confession …“ (1 Timothy 6 : 13).
Then Paul came to speak of the second appearance of Jesus: „the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ which will show us in his time the blessed and only mighty …“ (1 Timothy 6: 14-15).
Again the title God is called completely independent of Jesus. Unfortunately, many people think that when Jesus is called „Lord“ in the Bible, it means „God“. But in the Bible this title means ‚master‘ or ‚teacher‘ and can also be used for people (see 1 Peter 3: 6).
What is even more important is Peter’s following statement, which clearly shows that Jesus is not God: “God, the blessed and the only mighty, the king of kings and lord of all lords, who alone has immortality, who lives there in a light, since nobody can come, whom no man has seen or can see. Be honor and eternal kingdom. ” (1 Timothy 6: 15-16).
Paul said that God alone is immortal. Immortal means he will never die. You can read that in every dictionary. Well, anyone who believes that Jesus died cannot believe that Jesus is God. Such a belief would contradict Paul’s statement. And to further claim that God died is blasphemy (blasphemy). Because who receives the world when God is said to have died? Paul believed that God does not die.
Paul also said in this passage that God lives in an unreachable light – that no one has ever seen or can see God. Paul knew that thousands of people had seen Jesus. So when Paul said that nobody saw God, he was sure that Jesus was not God. For this reason, Paul continued to teach that Jesus was not God but the Christian. (see Acts 9:22 and 18: 5).
When he was in Athens, Paul spoke of God as: „God who made the world and everything in it, he who is a lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples with hands.“ (Acts 17:24). Then he describes Jesus as „a man whom he (ie God) has chosen to do.“ (Acts 17:31).
From this we can clearly see that, in Paul’s view, Jesus was not God, and he would be shocked if he saw that his writings were used to prove the opposite of what he believed. Paul even testified to this in court, saying, „But I confess that according to the teaching, … I serve the God of my fathers …“ (Acts 24:14).
He also said that Jesus is the servant of this very God, as we can read in the book of Acts: “The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus” (Acts 3:13).
For Paul, the father is only God. Paul said it is “a God and Father of all …” (Ephesians 4: 6). And Paul went on to say: „… we only have one God, the Father … it is only one Lord, Jesus Christ …“ (1 Corinthians 8: 6).
Paul’s letter to the Philippians (Philippians 2: 6-11) is often quoted as evidence that Jesus is God. But this passage proves that Jesus cannot be God. One must see it in connection with Isaiah 45: 22-24, where God says that all knees should bow before him and that every tongue should testify that justice and strength are only with God alone. Paul was aware of this passage because he quoted it in his letter to the Romans 14:11. Knowing this, he said: „That’s why I bend my knees in front of the father.“ (Ephesians 3:14).
The letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 1: 6) states that the angels of God should worship the Son. But this passage refers to Deuteronomy 32:43 in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. This sentence no longer appears in the Old Testament that Christians use today, and the Septuagint version is no longer considered valid by Christians. In any case, the Septuagint version does not say either, worship the son. She says let the angels of God worship God. The Bible insists that God be worshiped alone. “After all, the Lord had made a covenant with them and commanded them: Do not fear other gods and do not worship them and do not serve or sacrifice them, but the Lord who brought you out of Egypt with great strength and outstretched arm fears worship and sacrifice. And the statutes, rights, laws, and commandments that he has written down for you, that you always do, and do not fear other gods. And do not forget the covenant that he has made with you and do not fear other gods, but fear the LORD your God; he will save you from all your enemies. ‚”(2 Kings 17: 35-39).
Jesus, peace be upon him, believed in all of this because he also emphasized it in Luke 4: 8. And Jesus prostrated himself and worshiped God (see Matthew 26:39). Paul knew that Jesus prayed to God (see Hebrews 5: 7). And Paul taught that Jesus will remain devoted to God forever (see 1 Corinthians 15:28).
(part 6 of 7): Evidence from the Gospel of John
The Gospel of John, the fourth gospel, has been accomplished in its present form about seventy years after Jesus was raised to heaven. This gospel in its final form says one more thing about Jesus that was not known from the previous three gospels – that Jesus is the Word of God. John meant that Jesus was God’s means through which God had created everything else. This was often misunderstood and claimed that Jesus was God himself. But John meant, as Paul said, that Jesus was the first creature of God. In the revelation of John in the New Testament we read that Jesus „is the beginning of God’s creation.“ (Revelation 3:14, and see also 1 Corinthians 8: 6 and Colossians 1:15).
Anyone who says that the Word of God is a different person from God must also admit that the Word was created, because the Word speaks in the Bible and says: “The Lord had me in the beginning of his ways , from the beginning. ” (Proverbs 8:22).
This gospel also clearly teaches that Jesus is not God. If it did not continue this teaching, it would contradict the other three Gospels and also Paul’s letters, which clearly state that Jesus is not God. We find that Jesus is not synonymous with the Father because Jesus said: „… the Father is taller than I am.“ (John 14:28).
People forget this and claim that Jesus is equal to the Father. Who should we believe in – Jesus or man? Muslims and Christians believe that God exists out of himself. This means that it does not stem from anyone. John tells us that Jesus exists through the Father. In this gospel Jesus says: „… I live for the Father’s sake …“ (John 6:57).
John tells us that Jesus could not do anything on his own when he quotes Jesus: “I cannot do anything by myself…” (John 5:30). This is in line with what we learn about Jesus from the other gospels. With Markus, for example, we learn that Jesus performed miracles with a power that was not under his control. This is particularly evident in an episode in which a woman was cured of her incurable bleeding. The woman came from behind and touched his cloak and she was healed immediately. But Jesus had no idea who had touched him. Markus describes it this way: „And Jesus immediately felt to himself that a power had come from him, and turned around in the crowd and said: Who touched my clothes?“ (Mark 5:30). His disciples could not give a satisfactory answer, Markus continues: “And he looked around for the one who had done it.” (Mark 5:32). This shows us that Jesus had no control over the power that healed the woman. He knew the power had come from him, but he didn’t know where. Some other intelligent being must have directed that force to the woman that needed healing. And that intelligent being was God. which needed healing. And that intelligent being was God. which needed healing. And that intelligent being was God.
No wonder, then, when we read in the book of Acts that it was God who performed the miracles through Jesus (Acts 2:22).
God also performed miracles through other extraordinary things, but that did not make them gods (see Acts 19:11). So why is Jesus taken as God? Even when Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead, he asked God to do it. Lazarus‘ sister Martha knew this because she said to Jesus: “But even now I know that what you ask from God will give you God. ”(John 11:22).
Martha therefore knew that Jesus was not God, and John, who reported it, also knew it. Jesus had a God because when he was about to go to heaven he said, „I am going to my father and your father, my god and your god.“ (John 20:17).
John was certain that no one had seen God, although he knew that many people had seen Jesus (see John 1:18 and 1 John 4:12). In fact, Jesus himself told the crowd that they had never seen the father and that they had never heard the father’s voice (John 5:37). Note that if Jesus were the father, this statement would be wrong here. Who is God in the Gospel of John? The father alone.
Jesus testified when he declared that the God of the Jews is the Father (John 8:54). Jesus also confirmed that the Father alone is the only true God (see John 17: 1-3). And Jesus said to his enemies: „Now you are trying to kill me, such a person, who I have told you the truth that I have heard from God.“ (John 8:40). So according to John, Jesus was not God and nothing that John wrote can be used as evidence that he should have been God – unless you want to contradict John.
(part 7 of 7): God and Jesus are two different beings
For example, in Matthew 9: 2, Jesus said to a certain man, „Be confident, my son, your sins are forgiven.“ For this reason, some say that Jesus must be God, because only God forgives sins. But if you just read a few verses further, you will find. „… and praised God who gave such power to people.“ (Matthew 9: 8). This shows that people knew that Jesus was not the only person who was given such power by God; and Matthew agrees.
Jesus himself emphasized that he did not speak and act on his own (John 14:10), but only what the Father taught him (John 8:28). What Jesus did here was this. Jesus made known to the man the knowledge that he had received from God, and that was that God forgave the man.
Note that Jesus did not say, „I forgive your sins,“ but „Your sins are forgiven,“ because for the Jewish audience that means that God has forgiven the man. So Jesus had no power to forgive sins, and in that very episode he called himself „the Son of Man“ (Matthew 9: 6).
John 10:30 is often used to prove that Jesus is God because Jesus said, „I and the Father are one.“ But if you read the following six verses, you will find that Jesus explained that his enemies mistakenly thought he was claiming to be God. What Jesus obviously means here is that he is one with the Father in terms of the project. Jesus also prayed that his disciples should be one, like Jesus and the Father are one. Obviously, he did not pray that all of his disciples would somehow merge into one individual (see John 17:11 and 22). And when Luke reports that the disciples are all one, Luke doesn’t mean that they become one human being, but that they have a common goal, although they are different beings (see Acts 4:32). That means Jesus and the Father are two because Jesus said they were two witnesses (John 8: 14-18). They must be two because one is taller than the other (see John 14:28). When Jesus prayed to be saved from the cross, he said: “Father, if you want, take this cup from me; but not mine but your will be done! ” (Luke 22:42).
This shows that they had two different wills, although Jesus submitted to the Father’s will. Two will means two different individuals.
Jesus is also said to have said, „My God, my God, why did you leave me?“ (Matthew 27:46). If one of them had left the other, then they must also be two different existences.
And again, Jesus is said to have said: „Father, I command my spirit into your hands.“ (Luke 23:46). If the mind of one can be placed in the hands of the other, they must be two different beings.
In all of these matters, Jesus clearly submits to the Father. When Jesus knelt down, he obviously did not pray to himself (see Luke 22:41). He prayed to his god.
Throughout the New Testament, only the Father alone is called God. Indeed, the titles „father“ and „god“ were used to refer to an individual, not three and never Jesus. This is evident in Matthew, who replaced the title „Father“ with the title „God“ in at least two places in his gospel. (Compare Matthew 10:29 with Luke 12: 6, and Matthew 12:50 with Mark 3:35). If Matthew did it right, then the Father alone is God.
Was Jesus the Father? No! For Jesus said: “You shall not be called your father on earth; because one is your Father who is in heaven. ” (Matthew 23: 9). So Jesus is not the Father because Jesus stood on earth when he said this.
The Quran intends to make people return to the true faith that Jesus taught and the teachings of which had continued his true disciples. These teachings emphasized the obligation to obey the first commandment that God is alone. In the Quran, God instructs Muslims to call the people who have been given the scriptures back to this true belief. God says in the Quran:
Say: “O people of Scripture (Christians and Jews)! Come to the same word between us and you that we are serving God alone and put nothing next to Him and that some of us do not take others as masters except God. ” (Quran, 3:64)
Source: https://www.islamland.com/deu/articles/die-bibel-verneint-die-gttlichkeit-jesu