Researched, compiled, and written by Dr. Dave A. Schoch, Th.D., NT Theology
October 15, 2020
10. Attributes of God shared by Christ:
– Eternality
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Micah 5:2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me One who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
John 8:58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
John 17:5 And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.
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– Omnipotence
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
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– Omnipresence
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them.”
John 3:13* No man has ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.
John 6:48-51, 58 I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh…This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
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“down from heaven” where ek (from) speaks of an object or person which was beforehand in something or somewhere else but are presently separated from where they once were, such as an egg yoke taken out of the egg shell. In Biblical Greek, if something is separated from where it once was, then that separation ‘from’ it is expressed with ek; while if that something was only near it, on it, or with it, then that separation is expressed with apo. ek is used in respect to either place, time, source, or origin – in this case, when Jesus uses it, He uses it in respect to origin. Its base definition is out of, or separation from. When used of origin, ek implies “likeness.” The word translated as “down” is the verb katabainw, and what is interesting about its use here, is its grammar – it is in the present active participle. What this tells us is that Christ was in a constant present state of “coming down” from heaven, in allusion to being presently in heaven and on earth at the same time, mirroring the statement in John 3:13. This speaks of the omnipresence of Christ as God, who was both in heaven and walking the earth at the exact same time.
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– Omniscience
John 2:24 But Jesus on His part did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people.
John 21:17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” and he said to Him, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.
Luke 6:7-8 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched Jesus, to see whether He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse Him. But He knew their thoughts, and He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there.
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– Immutability (unchanging nature)
Hebrews 1:10-12 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe You will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end.”
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
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11. Old Testament Messianic Prophecies that tell of His divine nature:
Zechariah 12:10 [God says,] “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on Me, on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over Him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”
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John 19:34-37 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness–his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth–that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of His bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on Him whom they have pierced.”
Revelation 1:7 Behold, Jesus is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. Even so. Amen.
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Yahweh is speaking in verse 10, saying that He will pour out grace upon the house of David and Jerusalem, and that “they” will “look upon Me, upon Him whom they have pierced,” specifically addressing the humanity of the coming Messiah. This text demonstrates that Christ is Yahweh God in the flesh. We must examine the language of the Zechariah text: and part of the explanation as to why a certain pronoun was changed, finds its place here…
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S Lewis Johnson has some additional insights on the Jewish approach to Zechariah 12:10 – “I have a commentary on the Old Testament written by some Jewish scholars, it’s not a bad commentary in many ways, and I find a great deal of help. I notice the explanation that they gave of the 10th verse of the 12th chapter. It was something like this: ‘They shall look unto me, because THEY, the nations, have thrust Him through.’ ‘They shall look unto me because they the nations have pierced him through.’ And I looked in my Hebrew text to discover how this rendering of the text was possible. It is impossible. Will you look at the text carefully, it says, “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem”. There (“HOUSE OF DAVID…INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM”) is the “THEY” of the text, not the nations. The nations have been mentioned in the 9th verse. But since that mention, there has only been the mention of the Jews in verse 10! And so surely the normal interpretation of the 10th verse is, “And they”, that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, about whom I’ve just been speaking. [https://www.preceptaustin.org/zechariah-12-commentary; Johnson was a professor of the OT and Fluent in Biblical Hebrew]
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Basically, what Austin is telling us (through Johnson), is that the scribes didn’t like the idea that Jews would be responsible for killing (piercing) their coming God-Messiah, so they changed things up a little during their copying in two different ways…
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Because of the difficulty of the concept of the mortal piercing of God, the subject of this clause, and the shift of pronoun from “me” to “him” in the next…The reasons for such alternatives, however, are clear—they are motivated by scribes who found such statements theologically objectionable—and they should be rejected in favor of the more difficult reading (lectio difficilior) of the MT. [note on the text from the NET Bible, electronic version, emphasis theirs]
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The copying scribes didn’t like the theological implication of their own people killing their Messiah, so they changed the interpretation to be that of the Gentile nations killing Him and then, for good measure, changed the pronoun from “me” to “him” in effort to make it look like two different people are being spoken about. The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary backs this up…
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The Jews, to avoid the conclusion that He whom they have “pierced” is Jehovah-Messiah, who says, “I will pour out … spirit,” altered “me” into “him,” and represent the “pierced” one to be Messiah Ben (son of) Joseph, who was to suffer in the battle with Cog, before Messiah Ben David should come to reign. But the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic translations of the verse oppose this rendering. [The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, electronic version]
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According to the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic Bible translations, this verse reads, “when they look unto Me, unto Me whom they have pierced.” Some commentators believe this is the pre-incarnate Christ who is speaking instead of God because of the wording, but a pre-incarnate Christ is not in the text, it is Yahweh God speaking through the prophet.
Furthermore, the mention of the Messiah Ben Joseph and Messiah Ben David is a hint at the Jews’ misunderstanding of Scripture to teach two Messiahs (the one suffering servant, and the other the conquering King). When the Jews brought Jesus before Pilate to be executed, they believed that they were executing the suffering Messiah, Messiah Ben Joseph, not the conquering king Messiah (Ben David). If they had realized that there was only one Messiah, then they would have accepted His claims to be God and would not have killed Him.
What these facts tell us is that the original wording of the text in question, has been altered by Jewish scribes, not because the idea of Yahweh-Messiah being pierced (because plenty of OT passages teach that the Messiah would be Yahweh in human form, but because of the reading that “the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (the Jews) will look upon their God-Messiah “whom THEY have pierced.”
The conclusion on this passage (Zechariah 12:10) is that “me” and “him” (which was originally both first person “me”) refers to the speaker, who is Yahweh in the text. Since it is Yahweh in the text, when we observe that it is quoted and attributed to Jesus in John 19:34-37, and then again mentioned in Revelation 1:7, about the glorified Christ, we have another proof positive piece of evidence of Scripture that Jesus Christ is Yahweh God in the flesh. Fully human and fully God, just as both Scripture and the Jews fully recognized in the centuries before His incarnation.
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Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says Yahweh of hosts.”
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Mark 1:1-3* The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send My messenger before My face, who will prepare My way;” and “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way for Yahweh, make His paths straight,’”
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Isaiah 40:3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way for Yahweh; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
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Matthew 3:3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’”
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While all four gospels attribute Isaiah 40:3 to John the Baptist, only Mark quotes Malachi 3:1 concerning him. However, in Mark the wording has been changed from what Malachi originally states. Malachi reads, “He will prepare the way before Me,” while Mark changes it to “before Your face.” This is not a discrepancy, corruption, or contradiction – it is what has come to be called in numerous NT quotations of the OT, as “interpretive quoting.”
In other words, Mark understood from Scripture (and most likely the church’s teaching on Jesus) that Malachi 3:1 was a form of Messianic prophecy, and that the Messiah was God in human form; therefore, he quoted it interpretively as meaning before the Messiah’s face. Either way, the original text tells us that Yahweh was the one coming, and that He was going to send a messenger before Himself in order to “make straight paths” for Himself.
This is yet another instance of the NT writers’ practice of applying to Jesus what the OT Scriptures related to Yahweh. In turn, this is another OT passage that affirms the identity of the Messiah as Yahweh in the flesh – Jesus Christ.
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Zechariah 14:5 And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then Yahweh my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him.
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Jude 1:14-15 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
Revelation 19:11-14 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He has a name written that no one knows but Himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on white horses.
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Firstly, angels are never called “holy ones” in Scripture, this is a designation of God’s holy saints; therefore, the Zechariah text does not refer to angelic beings.
Secondly, Enoch seems to be repeating the same prophetic utterance about God coming with His holy ones.
Third, both prophetic utterances from the OT (although we do not have the Book of Enoch) are fulfilled in Rev. 19:11-14, where again, “the armies of heaven” are depicted as the saints of God, NOT angelic beings. The words “the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure,” are descriptors of the saints, which is identical in Rev. 6:11, 7:9-14, and 19:6-8.
Therefore, having all of the facts in order, God is prophesied to be coming with His saints for judgment, which we see fulfilled in Rev. 19:11-14 when Christ rides down out of heaven with His saints following Him on their white horses.
Again, Jesus is depicted as fulfilling a prophetic utterance about God, because He is Yahweh God in the flesh.
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12. Old Testament passages that are attributed to Him, which are not Messianic prophecy:
Isaiah 42:8 I am Yahweh; that is My name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved idols.
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God clearly states that He will not give His glory to anyone (or anything), it is His alone. Yet one of the titles of Jesus Christ in the NT is “the Lord of Glory”…
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1 Corinthians 2:8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
James 2:1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
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Even if we discount the fact that in the NT the title “Lord” is synonymous with God (as a replacement for God’s name – Yahweh – as it appeared in the Septuagint, which is what the First century Jews read), the fact that God will not give His glory to anyone else, and then we find by the Holy Spirit that Jesus is called the “Lord of Glory,” by itself is prima facie evidence that Jesus’ claim to be God in the flesh is validated and vindicated.
Taking both of these Scriptural facts in hand, we find that these passages and other Scriptures, do indeed teach that Jesus Christ is Yahweh God in the flesh.
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Numbers 21:4-6 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
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In the above passage, it is recorded that some in Israel, after their miraculous release from Egyptian slavery, tested God in the wilderness out of lack of faith, and so He sent among them serpents that bit them so that some of them died. But…Paul tells us about the same incident, but in a different way…
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1 Corinthians 10:9 Neither test Christ, as some of them tried Him, and perished by serpents.
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Paul tells us here, by direct reference, that Yahweh and Christ are one and the same…because the Israelites tested God in the OT text, and the Holy Spirit through Paul tells us that it was Christ that they tempted and were punished by serpents for their impudence’s.
In effect, Paul tells us that Jesus Christ is Yahweh God in the flesh, particularly since “Jesus” didn’t exist in the OT because He had not yet been made incarnate.
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Deuteronomy 10:17 For Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
Psalms 136:3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His steadfast love endures forever;
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In these two OT passages, God is called the “Lord of lords,” a title that specifically belonged to Yahweh alone, and yet in two different places in the NT Scriptures, Jesus Christ is also called the Lord of lords.
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1 Timothy 6:14-16 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will display at the proper time–He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
Revelation 19:11-16 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
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According to these passages, Jesus Christ and Yahweh God are the same person; Jesus is God in the flesh, holding the same titles of Yahweh that were specifically and explicitly His alone.
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Psalms 68:18 You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in Your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that Yahweh God may dwell there.
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The whole of Psalm 68 is all about Yahweh, and in the text above, David uttered this textual prophesy concerning God. Then, Paul pens the following:
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Ephesians 4:8 Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high He led a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.”
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Paul attributes Psalm 68:18 to Jesus, thus indirectly telling us that He is God in the flesh. Another prima facie pair of texts that link God and Christ together, demonstrating the deity of Christ.
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Isaiah 8:13-14 (NKJV) The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
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Isaiah is specific in his prophetic utterance; Yahweh God would be a “stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” Then, under the moving of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Peter attributes this passage from the prophet to Jesus, that Christ is that “stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”…
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1 Peter 2:8 (NKJV) and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
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Once again God makes it very clear that He was incarnate in Christ, that Jesus was God in the flesh. There is only one stone of stumbling, and only one rock of offense; and Scripture tells us that it is Jesus Christ the God-man.
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Psalms 119:89 Lamedh. Yahweh, Your word is firmly fixed in the heavens forever.
Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
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Both the Psalmist and the prophet Isaiah tells us that God’s Word will stand for all eternity, which should not be a surprise since He is God. Then we have similar statements by Jesus Himself concerning the eternality of His Word…
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Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
Luke 21:33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
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When Jesus says that His words will not pass away, He echoes the statement made by God that His word will stand forever. In effect, Jesus here makes a statement of deity that a mere man cannot make. No mere human being will ever originate a word that will never “pass away” and “stand forever.”
These passages are yet another feather in the hat of Christ’s (and of the Scriptures’) claims that Jesus is God in the flesh.
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Joel 2:32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom Yahweh calls.
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Joel says that whoever calls upon the name of Yahweh will be saved. There is no disputing this by any rational person who knows what they are talking about. Yet, Paul…being moved along by the Holy Spirit, writes…
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Romans 10:8-13 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. For “everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved.”
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First, remember that the title “Lord” in the Septuagint substituted for God’s name, Yahweh, and the Apostles carried that fact over into their quotes and writings. In verse 9 when Paul says that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,” he is saying that you believe and confess that Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh, echoing what Jesus Himself tells us in John 8:24 and what John also testified to in John 20:31 (“Son of God”).
Paul’s intent is ratified and verified when he says in verse 12 that “the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him,” speaking of Jesus, which Paul led up to for quoting Joel 2:32 in verse 13. Paul imputes Yahweh in Joel to Jesus whom we are to call upon for salvation, which Peter also testified to in saying…
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Acts 2:16-21, 36 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on My male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out My Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of Yahweh comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of Yahweh shall be saved’… Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
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So Peter the Apostle, along with Paul, also attributes Joel 2:32 to Jesus, being the “Lord” (Yahweh) that we are to call upon for salvation. And again, Peter refers to this verse and the name of Jesus, in his defense before the Council…
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Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
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God tells us by His Spirit, through the hands of the Apostles, that all who call upon His name will be saved, and that the name we are to call Him by for salvation is Jesus. These passages give positive evidence for the fact that Jesus Christ is Yahweh God in the flesh.
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13. Extra-Biblical historical witnesses:
– Early church fathers
The following are brief excerpts and quotes from the early church fathers, most notably Polycarp who was a first-generation disciple of John the Apostle, and Ignatius who was a disciple of Polycarp. So, we have two generations of disciples of John the Apostle, confirming his words in his Gospel that Jesus Christ is Yahweh God in the flesh. This destroys the lies and false claims of those who try to persuade us that the doctrine of the deity of Christ is a false doctrine that was never taught by the apostles in Scripture, but came about in the Third Century.
All together there are nine Fathers of the early church listed here, ranging from 50 – 254 A.D. Two of these witnesses (Polycarp and Ignatius) lived during the lifetime of John the Apostle, and more than likely both of them heard John teach and preach and speak about the things of Christ.
Polycarp (AD 69-155) was the bishop at the church in Smyrna. Irenaeus tells us Polycarp was a disciple of John the Apostle. In his Letter to the Philippians he says,
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Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth…and to us with you, and to all those under heaven who will yet believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead.
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Ignatius (AD 50-117) was the bishop at the church in Antioch and was a disciple of Polycarp. He wrote a series of letters to various churches on his way to Rome, where he was to be martyred. He writes,
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Ignatius, who is also Theophorus, unto her which hath been blessed in greatness through the plentitude of God the Father; which hath been foreordained before the ages to be for ever unto abiding and unchangeable glory, united and elect in a true passion, by the will of the Father and of Jesus Christ our God; even unto the church which is in Ephesus [of Asia], worthy of all felicitation: abundant greeting in Christ Jesus and in blameless joy. [Letter to the Ephesians, Introduction (Greeting)]
Being as you are imitators of God, once you took on new life through the blood of God you completed perfectly the task so natural to you. [Letter to the Ephesians]
There is only one physician, who is both flesh and spirit, born and unborn, God in man, true life in death, both from Mary and from God, first subject to suffering and then beyond it, Jesus Christ our Lord. [Letter to the Ephesians]
For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary according to God’s plan, both from the seed of David and of the Holy Spirit. [Letter to the Ephesians]
Consequently all magic and every kind of spell were dissolved, the ignorance so characteristic of wickedness vanished, and the ancient kingdom was abolished when God appeared in human form to bring the newness of eternal life. [Letter to the Ephesians]
For our God Jesus Christ is more visible now that he is in the Father. [Letter to the Romans]
I glorify Jesus Christ, the God who made you so wise, for I observed that you are established in an unshakable faith, having been nailed, as it were, to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. [Letter to the Smyrnaeans]
Wait expectantly for the one who is above time: the Eternal, the Invisible, who for our sake became visible; the Intangible, the Unsuffering, who for our sake suffered, who for our sake endured in every way. [Letter to Polycarp]
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Justin Martyr (AD 100-165) was a Christian apologist of the second century.
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And that Christ being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the judgment executed on Sodom, has been demonstrated fully by what has been said. [Dialogue with Trypho]
Permit me first to recount the prophecies, which I wish to do in order to prove that Christ is called both God and Lord of hosts. [Dialogue with Trypho]
Therefore these words testify explicitly that He [Jesus] is witnessed to by Him [the Father] who established these things, as deserving to be worshipped, as God and as Christ. [Dialogue with Trypho]
The Father of the universe has a Son; who also, being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God. And of old He appeared in the shape of fire and in the likeness of an angel to Moses and to the other prophets; but now in the times of your reign, having, as we before said, become Man by a virgin… [First Apology]
For if you had understood what has been written by the prophets, you would not have denied that He was God, Son of the only, unbegotten, unutterable God. [Dialogue with Trypho]
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Melito of Sardis (written between 160-170 A.D.) was the bishop of the church in Sardis.
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He that hung up the earth in space was Himself hanged up; He that fixed the heavens was fixed with nails; He that bore up the earth was born up on a tree; the Lord of all [God] was subjected to ignominy in a naked body—God put to death!…[I]n order that He might not be seen, the luminaries turned away, and the day became darkened—because they slew God, who hung naked on the tree…This is He who made the heaven and the earth, and in the beginning, together with the Father, fashioned man; who was announced by means of the law and the prophets; who put on a bodily form in the Virgin; who was hanged upon the tree; who was buried in the earth; who rose from the place of the dead, and ascended to the height of heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father.
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Irenaeus of Lyons (AD 130-202) was bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, which is now Lyons, France. Irenaeus was born in Smyrna in Asia Minor, where he studied under bishop Polycarp, who in turn had been a disciple of John the Apostle.
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For I have shown from the Scriptures, that no one of the sons of Adam is as to everything, and absolutely, called God, or named Lord. But that He is Himself in His own right, beyond all men who ever lived, God, and Lord, and King Eternal, and the Incarnate Word, proclaimed by all the prophets, the apostles, and by the Spirit Himself, may be seen by all who have attained to even a small portion of the truth. Now, the Scriptures would not have testified these things of Him, if, like others, He had been a mere man…He is the holy Lord, the Wonderful, the Counselor, the Beautiful in appearance, and the Mighty God, coming on the clouds as the Judge of all men;—all these things did the Scriptures prophesy of Him. [His work, “Against Heresies”]
He received testimony from all that He was very man, and that He was very God, from the Father, from the Spirit, from angels, from the creation itself, from men, from apostate spirits and demons. [His work, “Against Heresies”]
Christ Himself, therefore, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who spoke to Moses, and who was also manifested to the fathers. [His work, “Against Heresies”]
Carefully, then, has the Holy Ghost pointed out, by what has been said, His birth from a virgin, and His essence, that He is God. And He shows that He is a man…[W]e should not understand that He is a mere man only, nor, on the other hand, from the name Emmanuel, should suspect Him to be God without flesh. [His work, “Against Heresies”]
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Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-215) was another early church father. He wrote around AD 200. He writes,
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This Word, then, the Christ, the cause of both our being at first (for He was in God) and of our well-being, this very Word has now appeared as man, He alone being both, God and man – the Author of all blessings to us; by whom we, being taught to live well, are sent on our way to life eternal…The Word, who in the beginning bestowed on us life as Creator when He formed us, taught us to live well when He appeared as our Teacher that as God He might afterwards conduct us to the life which never ends. [His evangelistic writings, “Exhortation to the Heathen”]
For it was not without divine care that so great a work was accomplished in so brief a space by the Lord, who, though despised as to appearance, was in reality adored, the expiator of sin, the Savior, the clement, the Divine Word, He that is truly most manifest Deity, He that is made equal to the Lord of the universe; because He was His Son, and the Word was in God… [His evangelistic writings, “Exhortation to the Heathen”]
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Tertullian (AD 150-225) was an early Christian apologist. He said,
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For God alone is without sin; and the only man without sin is Christ, since Christ is also God. [Treatise on the Soul]
Thus Christ is Spirit of Spirit, and God of God, as light of light is kindled…That which has come forth out of God is at once God and the Son of God, and the two are one. In this way also, as He is Spirit of Spirit and God of God, He is made a second in manner of existence—in position, not in nature; and He did not withdraw from the original source, but went forth. This ray of God, then, as it was always foretold in ancient times, descending into a certain virgin, and made flesh in her womb, is in His birth God and man united. [His work, “Apology”]
As if in this way also one were not All, in that All are of One, by unity (that is) of substance; while the mystery of the dispensation is still guarded, which distributes the Unity into a Trinity, placing in their order the three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in substance, but in form; not in power, but in aspect; yet of one substance, and of one condition, and of one power, inasmuch as He is one God, from whom these degrees and forms and aspects are reckoned, under the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. [“Against Praxeas”]
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Hippolytus of Rome (AD 170-235) was a third-century theologian. He was a disciple of Irenaeus, who was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John. He writes,
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The Logos alone of this God is from God himself; wherefore also the Logos is God, being the substance of God. [His work, “Refutation of All Heresies”]
For, lo, the Only-begotten entered, a soul among souls, God the Word with a (human) soul. For His body lay in the tomb, not emptied of divinity; but as, while in Hades, He was in essential being with His Father, so was He also in the body and in Hades. For the Son is not contained in space, just as the Father; and He comprehends all things in Himself. [Exegetical fragments of his writings from commentaries on Luke]
For all, the righteous and the unrighteous alike, shall be brought before God the Word. [His work, “Against Plato”]
Let us believe then, dear brethren, according to the tradition of the apostles, that God the Word came down from heaven, (and entered) into the holy Virgin Mary, in order that, taking the flesh from her, and assuming also a human, by which I mean a rational soul, and becoming thus all that man is with the exception of sin, He might save fallen man, and confer immortality on men who believe on His name…He now, coming forth into the world, was manifested as God in a body, coming forth too as a perfect man. For it was not in mere appearance or by conversion, but in truth, that He became man. Thus then, too, though demonstrated as God, He does not refuse the conditions proper to Him as man, since He hungers and toils and thirsts in weariness, and flees in fear, and prays in trouble. And He who as God has a sleepless nature, slumbers on a pillow. [His work, “Against the Heresy of one Noetus”]
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Origen (AD 185-254) was another early Christian theologian. He writes,
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Jesus Christ…in the last times, divesting Himself (of His glory), became a man, and was incarnate although God, and while made a man remained the God which He was. [From the preface of his work, “De Principiis”]
For that is nothing else than to say that there was once a time when He was not the Truth, nor the Wisdom, nor the Life, although in all these He is judged to be the perfect essence of God the Father; for these things cannot be severed from Him, or even be separated from His essence. [From his work, “Contra Celsus,” Book 5]
And that you may understand that the omnipotence of Father and Son is one and the same, as God and the Lord are one and the same with the Father, listen to the manner in which John speaks in the Apocalypse: “Thus saith the Lord God, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” For who else was “He which is to come” than Christ? And as no one ought to be offended, seeing God is the Father, that the Savior is also God; so also, since the Father is called omnipotent, no one ought to be offended that the Son of God is also called omnipotent. [From his work, “De Principiis,” Book 1]
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Further facts on the subject…
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It was not until the Gospel had been preached for some 300 years in New Testament terms, that anyone took on himself to assail the belief of Christians in the deity of Christ. The person who did it was Arius. The novel form of his attack shows that Christians had hitherto accepted it without question. His arguments, as formulated by him, were clearly intended as an objection to the prevalent view, not as a correction of a heresy. If the state of affairs had been otherwise, that is, if Christians generally had denied the deity of Christ, then his opposition would have been meaningless.
The Deity of Christ; F. F. Bruce; W. J. Martin; NOEET Journal; 1964; pg. 5
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Therefore, when someone tries to tell you that the early church did not believe in the deity of Christ, they either do not know what they are talking about, or they are lying through their teeth for the cause of their false bias.
Rejection of Jesus as God in the flesh is based solidly upon philosophical grounds, not historical grounds. It is virtually impossible to disprove the Bible on this point on a historical basis. Rejecting the historicity of Scripture on this point because of the events or messages it contains is a rejection based firmly upon philosophical grounds, not historical grounds.
This is the end of this study.
Until next time, God bless!
New Covenant Understanding 