While the belief in Jesus Christ as a divine being, God himself come to earth, is a core belief of Christianity, in his book, How Jesus Became God, author Bart Ehrman seeks to disprove this. Focusing on answering the question of who Jesus thought he was, Ehrman argues that Jesus himself did not believe he was a divine being, and he illustrates his point by discussing how divine beings were common around Jesus’s time, and by exploring biblical texts to back up his claim that Jesus saw himself as a messiah rather than God. With these arguments, Ehrman paints a clear picture of the time period, while using historical and biblical references to prove his point. Ehrman 's first argument delves into the history of 'divine beings ', particularly …show more content…
First, he discusses the unreliability of biblical writings, like the gospels of the new testament, stating that "the Gospels cannot simply be taken at face value as giving us historically reliable accounts of the things Jesus said and did", (Ehrman 88), because not only were they written after Jesus 's death, but they were also not from eyewitnesses who 'd personally seen or heard Jesus. Because the sources used in these writings are unknown, and the purpose of them was to, in Ehrman 's words, spread the "good news" of Jesus, the information in them must be carefully analyzed, and compared with other sources, before it can be accepted as true. This leads into one of Ehrman 's main arguments-that because the Hebrew Bible spoke of a messiah who was thought to be the future ruler of the people of Israel, but Jesus did not fit that image because of his pacifistic and compassionate views, Ehrman claims that Jesus 's actions would not have led anyone to believe he was the messiah, ergo he must have told them he was. Another interesting point that Ehrman makes is that some of Jesus 's early teachings differed from the views of early Christians. For instance, Ehrman cites a biblical passage which implies that people who are good and help others can get to heaven, despite the fact that the early church preached that heaven and salvation could only be attained by belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus. This, along with Ehrman 's highlighting the unreliability of biblical sources, furthers the idea that the real Jesus was much different than he was later made out to be, and that it is likely that much about him was twisted, misinterpreted or exaggerated to fit Christian views, particularly as during his time, there was a largely oral tradition, and much information was passed on through storytelling.
N.T. Wright: During my first semester at Northwestern College, I was assigned the book, “The Challenge of Jesus” by N.T. Wright for one of my Biblical Studies courses. This book and every other book Tom Wright has written has dramatically impacted my Christian faith. Dr. Wright has not only defended the basic tenants of the Christian faith, but also has shown how an academically-minded pastor ought to love and care for his or her congregants. N.T. Wright was previously the Bishop of Durham and pastored some of the poorest in the United Kingdom. His pastoral ministry has helped shape his understanding of God’s kingdom-vision which he is diagramming within his magnum opus “Christian Origins and the Question of God”. This series has instructed myself and countless other pastors to be for God’s kingdom as we eagerly await Christ’s return. Additionally, I have had the privilege of meeting with N.T. Wright one-on-one on numerous occasions to discuss faith, the Church, and his research. I firmly believe Tom Wright is the greatest New Testament scholar of our generation and he is the primary reason why I feel called into ministry.
In this first chapter of Jesus and the Disinherited , the author Howard Thurman describes
One of the main principles of Christianity is the belief in both the divinity and humanity of Jesus, that these two natures are combined harmoniously in one being. In general, all modern Christians believe that Jesus was human, he was considered to be “The Word was made flesh” (John, I: 14). However, Jesus was more than just a human, despite being subjected to pain, suffering and death like all other human beings, he was sinless and also possessed the power to heal and to defy death in order to ascend, both body and spirit, into heaven. He was all man and all God, a combination of these two elements, remaining distinct but united in one being. The deity of Jesus is a non-negotiable belief in Christianity, which is referred to in many parts of scripture, “God was revealed in the flesh” (I Timothy, 3:16). The Christian faith does not perceive Jesus as God but rather a reincarnation of God, a mysterious deity who is the second person of the Holy Trinity. Throughout history, controversy has surrounded the issue of the humanity and divinity of Jesus, leading to the formation of Docetism, the belief that Jesus was fully divine but not fully human, Arianism, that Jesus was superior to all of creation, but less divine than God, and Nestorius, that there were two separate persons within Jesus. This the proportion of the divine and human within Je...
In The Meaning of Jesus N.T. Wright and Marcus Borg present different views on issues relating to how Jesus is viewed. While Borg and Wright do agree on central ideals of Christianity, Borg tends to have more liberal views, whereas Wright holds more conservative views.
Jesus Christ became human and walked with men and women. The Creator of heaven and earth became a creature and entered the creation that he made into existence. God made himself known so humanity could have the most basic understanding of who he was and Christ there would be no Christianity. Jesus taught mankind a high view of Scripture and inspired his followers and others to uphold it as God’s Word. (A Starting Point for Wisdom by Jason Hiles and Anna Faith
This paper is written to discuss the many different ideas that have been discussed over the first half of Theology 104. This class went over many topics which gave me a much better understanding of Christianity, Jesus, and the Bible. I will be addressing two topics of which I feel are very important to Christianity. First, I will be focusing on the question did Jesus claim to be God? This is one of the biggest challenges of the Bibles that come up quite often. Secondly, I will focus on character development.
The Bible holds first God’s identity and who he is, labeled as the creator. By understanding
Being a Christian and a student of Communications, I felt compelled to reading The Case for Christ. I decided to use this book for this review especially due to the large amount of criticisms and backlash it had received. Lee Strobel is known for being a hard-nosed skeptical journalist and ex-investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He also described himself as a "former spiritual skeptic" before his personal mission for the proof of God. Skeptics around the world claim that Jesus either never said He was God or He never exemplified the activities and mindset of God. Either way they rather triumphantly proclaim that Jesus was just a man. Some will go so far as to suggest that He was a very moral and special man, but a man nonetheless. For Strobel, there was far too much evidence against the idea of God, let alone the possibility that God became a man. God was just mythology, superstition, or wishful thinking.
The book consists of three parts. The first part has five chapters of which focuses on explaining what the key questions are and why we find them difficult to answer. The second part has nine chapters explaining in detail what N.T. Wright considers Jesus’ public career and the approach he had in first century Palestine. The third part of the book, the last chapter, challenges readers to wrestle with the questions of Jesus’ life and ministry.
Equiano's own exposure of Christianity first began when he was no older than 12 years old and was first arriving in England, where he experienced the sight of snow for the first time. Curious to what it was, he asked a mate and soon found out that " a great man in the heavens, Called God " [Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrati...
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
Each author’s view is heavily marked by their understanding of the Bible and theology, and as a consequence, sheds greater light on the need for exceptional hermeneutics and purity of historical Christian tradition. Aside from contending the exact mechanism of salvation, the book discloses the theological bedrock used to characterize God. Within the space of the book itself, both Hick and Pinnock present a syncretized picture of Christianity with world religion and culture. Thus, both cases appeared less appealing and more distorting of Christ and the gospel. Left between McGrath and Geivett/ Phillips, the case presented is more difficult to resolve. The Geivett/ Phillips view espouses a logical and evidential condition to receiving salvation, which appears to undermine the mysterious and glorious work of the Holy Spirit in an individual’s heart. Therefore, I find McGrath’s position as the reasonable and correct view. In my opinion and understanding of the Bible, God’s salvation work cannot be bound to human
Lane, T. (2006). A concise history of christian thought (Completely ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
John P. Meier "How do we decide what comes from Jesus" in The Historical Jesus in Recent Research 2006 pages 132–136
Since the beginning of Christianity, the Christian Church had survived many controversies. However, in the early fourth century the Arian Controversy questioned the divinity of Jesus and placed the unity of the Church at risk. The Controversy was sponsored by Arius a presbyter presiding under the guidance of Alexander the Bishop of Alexandria. Arius believed in the divinity of Jesus but He did not believe Jesus was eternal. In other words, Arius believed Jesus was lower than God was. On the other hand, Arius and Alexander disagreed and they argued whether the Logos, the Word of God, was co-eternal with God. In response to the controversy the First Ecumenical, (universal) Council was called by Emperor Constantine. The Council was held at Nicea in 325 AD. The Emperor believed the bishops could resolve the dispute concerning the nature of Jesus Christ. According to Alister E. McGrath, “The question focused on whether Jesus Christ may legitimately be described as God.” The debates at the council concerned what the church believed about Jesus and the Trinity.