Why Did Not Jesus Say I Am God - Pt 1

8/13/2019 Why Did Not Jesus Say I Am God - Pt 1

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He did not want to confuse the poor little Satan into blurring the difference between the so -called person of Father and son as Thompson explains!

We think Trinitarians like Thompson would choose the second option for their defense of Jesus(peace be upon him) deity!

Finally, if Thompson really wants us to consider his confusion theory seriously then he shouldaddress the following issues:

1) Why should we doubt the preaching of multiple prophets down through the ages if theywere really teaching about any triune god concept? It is naturally expected that they must haveclarified the different persons in the godhead while, presumably, teaching triune gods and thus,the confusion theory is not really viable.

2) Even if we assume that Old Testament prophets did not clarify the difference between the persons of Jesus (peace be upon him) and Father yet, while in his ministry, Jesus (peace be upon

him) could have differentiated it very precisely and then declared his deity. This never happened we expect Thompson to address this.

3) At least in the post-crucifixion appearance Jesus (peace be upon him) could have taken theliberty to introduce himself as the second god-person amongst the three. Surprisingly, even thisdid not happen!

4) Thompson should address why he has no confidence on at least the immediate disciples ofJesus (peace be upon him) wherein Jesus (peace be upon him) could have at least declared hisdeity explicitly to them. As close disciples they should have at least not misunderstood theperson of Jesus (peace be upon him) with Father.

5) Finally, why did Jesus (peace be upon him) shy away from asserting his deity on Satanexplicitly; wasting the situation where Satan challenged Jesus (peace be upon him) the verysecond god-person of Trinitarians to worship itself in the first person. Was Jesus (peace beupon him) concerned about Satan s confusion into recognizing the persons of Father and sondistinctly!?

Thus, there were more than just one opportunity where Jesus (peace be upon him) identity asgod could have been declared without any scintilla of confusions between him and Father.

Consequently in the absence of clear and explicit declaration of Jesus (peace be upon him)

deity, Thompson has no other alternative other than manufacture weak aegis of confusion theoryunder which he can sell the complex and very costly philosophy of Trinity.

Rather than inventing escape clauses, Thompson and other Christians should come to terms withthe fact that Jesus (peace be upon him) never declared himself to be god since he had no warrantof doing so:


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And behold! Allah will say: O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, worship me andmy mother as gods in derogation of Allah ? He will say: Glory to Thee! never could I saywhat I had no r ight (to say) .Had I said such a thing, thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thouknowest what is in my heart, Thou I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all thatis hidden.( Qur an 5:116, Yusuf Ali s Quran Translati on)

Thompson tried to support the confusion theory with the so -called divine I am title which isapplied to Jesus (peace be upon him). However rather than doing any good, as we would see, itfurther proves our point that there was just no room that masses of people could have been ledinto confusion (!):

For instance, Jesus applied an Old Testament title I Am to himself, which is significant sincehe was basically making himself out to be the OT figure known as the Angel of the Lord, the IAm of Exo dus 3:14! Th ere were many dif ferent Jewish str ands at that t ime that al readymain tained that thi s fi gure was God and yet distinct f rom God. (2) Thus, by using the title IAm Jesus was affirming both His deity as well as His distinction from the Father sin ce in the

Old Testament I Am was applied to both God (cf. Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 43:13) and theAngel of the Lord (cf. Exodus 3:14). One needs to understand intertestimental Jewish thinking inorder to understand these issues properly. Without this pre-Christian Jewish backdrop in mindMuslims will be unable to understand why Jesus did what He did and said the things He said.

In summary, although Christ didn t say I am God without qualification, which would have led people to think he was the Father, he did apply numerous Old Testament titles of God to Himselfwhile going out of his way to affirm that He is not the Father.

Observe carefully that Thompson, on one hand, readily accepts that many Jews already recognized a deity other than and distinct from God, i.e., Father. According to Thompson this

separate god was recognized as the angel of Lord. So far so good! Nevertheless the problem then begins since Thompson, on the other hand, contradictorily goeson to argue that if Jesus (peace be upon him) would have explicitly declared his deity it wouldhave confused the Jews into diminishing the separate identities of Father and son!?

The obvious point is, if Jews really did recognized a distinct god besides God The Father thenthere is no basis f or the theory that Jews would be confused upon Jesus (peace be upon him)explicit declaration about his deity!? In fact, on the contrary, Jewish faith should have beenfurther bolstered in Jesus (peace be upon him) deity simply because the Jews alreadyrecognized a distinct person in the godhead besides Father! Or their faith should have at least grown on the issue that this man Jesus (peace be upon him) is claiming to be the same divineAngel of Lord which we now for ages. Therefore, unlike as Thomps on wants to portray,many Jews recognizing multiple (?)divine persons should have helped them recognize deity ofJesus (peace be upon him)!

Without realizing the flimsy state of his argument to our fundamental query, Thompson proceeded to produce other popular New Testament verses which impute Jesus (peace be upon


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him) with titles; In the process he also claimed that we neglected his main argument. In thefollowing passages let us look at Thompson s main argument:

DNSTs Failure to Address my Main A rgument

Amazingly, in his article DNST didnt address the issue of these divine Old Testament titlesbeing applied to Christ in the New Testament at all. He didnt dispute the fact that these wereti tles God used for H imself to establish H is own un ique dei ty which were also applied toChrist. No adequate explanation of this phenomenon was given by DNST. Instead he asserts thatthese are clich Christian arguments and moves on, which shows that he could not deal withthe central argument and chose to resort to ridicule, dismissal and mere assertion. This is not howyou engage in reasonable and honest apologetics.

DNST took the route of ignoring my argument and once again tried to defend the position that ifJesus was God He would have said the three words I am God. He also tried to argue that thereare texts which show Jesus isn t God in the New Testament. However, his arguments literally are

clich Muslim arguments which I will refute. After I refute his specious reasoning andarguments, he will then need to deal with these numerous Old Testament titles of God that areapplied to Christ in the New Testament.

[Side Note: There is something amazing with these people at answering-islam. They keepcoining new names for people whom they love, for instance, Th ompson now calls meDNST. That s the new Christ -like vogue this Christmas, I assume.]

Very soon we will come to Thompson s main argument but before that we would furthercheck if Thompson s own rationale (in the above quoted passage) would stand any furtherscrutiny.

Note that Thompson clearly wants to argue that same Old Testament divine titles of Fatherwere given to Jesus (peace be upon him), but:

1) How does Thompson confirm that applying titles of Old Testament deity which wasprimarily used for the person of Father (confirmed by Thompson as well) would not furtherconfuse Jews into blurring the difference of person of Father and son!? After all we are using the

same titles for Jesus (peace be upon him) as was used for Father in the Old Testament!

How logical is it that if Jesus (peace be upon him) refers to himself as alpha and omega (say)then it would not confuse the Jewish mass they would be crystal clear about this construct;

whereas, if he merely refers himself as god then Jews would, all of a sudden confuse betweenthe persons of Father and himself. This inconsistency is further magnified in the light of thefollowing two premises:

a) The title god with all its imports was a much simpler term for Jews to understand thanalpha and omega, even more so, when allegedly the same title alpha and omega was alsoused for God- The Father. If the term god confuses then alpha and omega or any other(indirect ) title must confuse even more intensely!


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b) We already know as Thompson informed that There were many different Jewish strandsat that time that already maintained that this figure was God and yet distinct from God Therefore, if many Jews already knew that there is a separate divine person besides Fatherthen there was definitely no room for them to confuse on Jesus (peace be upon him) declarationabout his divinity with the person of Father.

2) On the foregoing, from a Trinitarian perspective, the triune gods of Old Testament wereusing titles and explicit declaration about themselves. Trinitarians would argue that traditionallyJews accepted triune gods which must have included Messiah (peace be upon him) in it.Therefore, they must have recognized him as a deity. Subsequently, it is straw-man argument toclaim that Jews would confuse with explicit declaration but will not confuse if Jesus (peace beupon him) used titles from Old Testament!

Now coming to Thompson s main argument that Jesus (peace be upon him) applied divinetitles of Old Testament upon himself. We believe that rather than doing any good, it further

jeopardizes the monotheism, if any, of Trinitarian brand of Christianity. It is because Bible

rampantly recommends multiple Old Testament figures to take divine titles of Yahweh.

For ins tance, Old Testament uses the Hebrew term adonay, meaning Lord, for Yahweh:

All nations whom You have made Shall come and worship (wayishtahawu) befor e You , OLord ( adonay ), And shall glorify ( wikabbadu ) Your name. Psalm 86:9

Yet it also refers to prop hets with the same title adonay:

So the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because H e is your L ord (adonayik) , worship H im(wahishtahawilow) I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; Therefore

the people shal l pr aise You f orever and ever . Psalm 45:11, 17This is merely one instance, please refer to the following paper for a fuller investigation of the

biblical monotheism as it not merely uses same title of God for mere prophets but it alsorequires to worship them alongside Yahwe h, pay them the same reverence as Yahweh, shareYahweh s throne and finally to take mere church figures as lord him -selves and their words at

par with Old Testament commandments:

John 5:23 The Sweetest Trinitarian Honey! Visiting the darling Trinitarian argument from aneutral perspective

If it is understood that there was no room for Jews to be confused if Jesus (peace be upon him)explicitly declared his deity, then, the initial Muslim query still stands: Why did not Jesus (peace be upon him) declare himself to be god explicitly?

Bunch of verses revolving around the banal argument that Jesus (peace be upon him) shareddivine Old Testament titles are yet to be dealt with which we propose to do in the finalinstallment of this brief series.
http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/john-523-the-sweetest-trinitarian-honey/http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/john-523-the-sweetest-trinitarian-honey/http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/john-523-the-sweetest-trinitarian-honey/http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/john-523-the-sweetest-trinitarian-honey/http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/john-523-the-sweetest-trinitarian-honey/http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/why-did-not-jesus-p-say-i-am-god-part-2/http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/why-did-not-jesus-p-say-i-am-god-part-2/http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/why-did-not-jesus-p-say-i-am-god-part-2/http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/why-did-not-jesus-p-say-i-am-god-part-2/http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/why-did-not-jesus-p-say-i-am-god-part-2/http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/john-523-the-sweetest-trinitarian-honey/http://donotsaytrinity.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/john-523-the-sweetest-trinitarian-honey/


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Notes:

Unless otherwise mentioned, all biblical text taken from Good News Edition. All emphasize wherever not matching with original is ours.

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Why Did Not Jesus Say I Am God - Pt 1