American Unitarian Conference Forum

Did Jesus make such statements regarding his status, the words, the will and the power he used ?



WORDS

"Jesus answered them and said, "My doctrine is not Mine, but His
who sent Me." [John 7:16]

"He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word
which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me." [John 14:24]

"For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who
sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak." [John 12:49]

WILL

"Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent
me, and to accomplish his work." [John 4:34]

"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but
the will of Him who sent Me." [John 6:38]

"saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me;
nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." [Luke 22:42]

POWER

" I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment
is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the
Father who sent Me." [John 5:30]

"I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master,
nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him." [John 13:16]

"You heard me say, `I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you
loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I." [John 14:28]

"Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me,
for I proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord,
but he sent me." [ John 8:42]

"To sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for
those for whom it has been prepared by my Father" [Matthew 20:23]

KNOWLEDGE

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in
heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." [Mr 13:32]

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of
heaven, but My Father only." [Mt 24:36]

"So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who
sent me" [John 7:16]

STATUS

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the
kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." [Mt 7:21]

"And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of
me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. [John 5:37]

"And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good
but God alone." [Mr 10:18]

"And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges." [John 8:50]

Some Christians, (not all) claim that Jesus _implied_ that he was God, from the above verses, we see that Jesus denied being God, it now leaves the Christians who believe Jesus is God to provide just one single verse in the Bible where Jesus says "I am God" there is no such verse, the God of Abraham in the Old Testament stated "I am God" over 200 times, yet oddly Jesus never uttered those three words once in the Gospel, so we see from the many quotes above, that the House did not belong to Jesus, it belonged to the One who Sent him.

Great post.

There is one verse in the Bible that explicitly says Jesus is "God," John 20:28. But it comes from the mouth of a character in the narrative (one of the disciples), not Jesus, God, or the author John.

There are verses that imply Jesus is God, such as Heb 1:8, but the scripture quoted there calls the king of Israel "God," so Jesus could only be "God" in the same sense as the king of Israel. (The same principle would apply to Isaiah 9:6, which also calls the king of Israel "God." However, the New Testament never says that Isaiah 9:6 applies to Jesus anyway.)

John 1:1 doesn't say Jesus is God, but it does say that God's Word is "God" (divine). The only problem is that, while it does say that the Word became flesh (i.e., Jesus), it does not say that the Word and Jesus were always the same. My thinking is that the Word is not a person, anymore than the Holy Spirit is a person.

And that's it. One might include John 1:18, but many manuscripts don't have the word "God" there, so it's not sure.

Agree

My beliefs, Holy Spirit is an angel

Agree, your Bible tracts clearly identify why Unitarian's differed from their orthodox cousins....and we find it hard to believe that there has been so much intolerance over such (to us) clear examples of distinctness between the man Jesus and God. You can find many circular and lengthy treatments that purport to show that the statements above really do imply Jesus = God (such as those on tektonics.org and other Christian apologetic sites), however, I find the arguments unconvincing.

For example, on their website...copy and paste the verses above in the "search" field and you will be led to the apoligetics response. One should consider how the other arguments are made. For example, if you type in John 5:30 one of the articles is called "Discussions with Unitarians" -James Patrick Holding

David M wrote There is one verse in the Bible that explicitly says Jesus is "God," John 20:28. But it comes from the mouth of a character in the narrative (one of the disciples), not Jesus, God, or the author John.

My thoughts of John 20:28 are that Thomas is not calling Jesus Lord and God (kurios and theos) but making an exclamation of awe in worship to God when discovering the resurrected Christ. The verse says that Thomas "said unto him (Jesus)" . It does not say that Thomas called Jesus Lord and God.