Stumbling Over Messiah

Brian Hennessy
 

“Then he shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel,
a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over.” (Isa. 8:14)

            In this prophecy, Isaiah peers down the long corridor of time and sees that both houses of Israel, Judah and Israel, will stumble over the Messiah when he comes.

Now we know how and when the descendants of Judah, the Jews, stumbled over him. The Bible clearly documents how they clung to the mistaken belief that righteousness came by works of the Law. They were not willing to put all their trust for salvation in Yeshua Ha’ Mashiach (who is called Jesus the Christ in the Greek), and receive God’s righteousness by faith. Only a chosen remnant came to believe in him to become the early Church. The rest turned away. “They stumbled over the stumbling stone” (Rom. 9:32). But as Paul also pointed out, the people “did not stumble so as to fall” (Rom. 11:11). God promised their descendants a second chance in the future.

But what about the other kingdom, the House of Israel, which was also called “Ephraim” after the most prominent of its ten tribes? How and when did they stumble over Messiah? The Assyrians had conquered their land in 722 B.C. and exiled them. How could they trip over Jesus when they weren’t even in Israel in the first century when he came?

There are only two possible explanations.

1. Ephraim was in Judah

This is the belief of some. They say that most of Ephraim fled south before Assyria overran the nation and were absorbed into the southern kingdom of Judah to become “Jews.” Therefore, it could be said that when the Jewish nation stumbled over Jesus in the first century, all Israel was represented among those who stumbled.

But this doesn’t square with the Bible’s account of the reunion that is so prominently and dramatically prophesied in the Bible. There is no question that some of Ephraim was absorbed into Judah, but not enough to explain the amount of prophecy dedicated to their reunion. In fact, hundreds of verses in the OT reveal that the rejoining of Judah and Ephraim will precipitate the Messianic Age. It is prophesied more times than even the first coming of Messiah. Furthermore, most of the prophets who foretold the reunion, including three of the four major prophets (Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel), lived long after the Assyrian invasion. So how can it be reasonably argued the reunion took place before the invasion (see Ezek. 37:15-28; Isa. 11:11-16; Jer. 23:3-8)?

2. Ephraim is in the Church

This explanation is the obvious one to anyone not wedded to the notion that the reunion has already taken place (or that they are lost forever). Of course, how a remnant of Ephraim could be in the Church requires some explanation. And learning how and when they stumbled is the reason for this article.

How Ephraim got into the Church is really quite simple. Father God went out and found them among the Gentiles and brought us to Jesus. The Bible tells how the people of the northern kingdom of Israel were not destroyed but scattered among the nations (see 2 Kings 18: 9-12 and 1 Chronicles 5:26). And even if some escaped into Judah, enough went into exile to eventually became a “multitude of Gentiles.” Which would be a fulfillment of the prophesy Jacob gave concerning the descendants of his grandson Ephraim (Gen. 48:19). They had kids, built homes and melted into the customs, beliefs and races of whatever nation they migrated to. Just as the Jews have done for the last 2000 years after being exiled by Rome.

Most would no doubt forget their origins. But God never would. For He had promised over and over through His prophets that He would go and find the scattered remnant of His people no matter where they were. “If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it” (Deut 30:4).

But He was even more specific to Ephraim. Hosea, the very prophet who had pronounced judgment upon them, saying, “You are not My people, and I am not your God” (Hos. 1:9), in the next breath spoke these words of hope:

“YET the number of the sons of Israel [Ephraim] will be like the sands of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered; And in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ it will be said to them, ‘You are the sons of the living God’ (and aren’t Christians today called the ‘Sons of God’?). And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one leader [guess who?], and they will go up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.” (Hos. 1:10,11).

Eventually Jesus came and brought God’s New Covenant to the nation and opened the door for both Judah and Ephraim to be restored. Judah, who was still considered Israel, rejected the good news. So the Gospel had to be preached to the ends of the earth so Ephraim could hear it. And over the centuries, one by one those “Gentile” descendants of Ephraim who were part of the chosen remnant were found and brought into the kingdom. In fact, I am convinced that all non-Jewish believers in Messiah are no doubt true descendants of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. I say that because Paul tells us, “If you belong to Messiah, you are Abraham’s descendants” (Gal. 3:29). The only way we can be a descendant of Abe’s is to be born with his DNA. The Bible never gives Gentile believers the option to be called “spiritual descendants,” or to say we were “adopted” into his family. We are only “adopted” into God’s family to become “sons of God” (Rom. 8:15).

But if we “Gentiles” who were specifically drawn to Jesus by the Father’s love (John 6:37,44) are indeed Ephraim’s chosen seed – how and where did we stumble? We didn’t reject Jesus, as Judah did. We believed in him and obtained “the righteousness which is by faith” (Rom. 9:30).

Obviously we stumbled later

It seems that after we found Jesus we got bushwhacked by Satan’s Plan B. If he can’t stop us from coming to God, he will try and trip us up later with his religious tricks. It began shortly after the anointed Jewish leadership that had helped guide the Church in her infancy had “fallen asleep.” And the incoming Gentile numbers grew so enormous that we soon became the Church and ran the whole show. Right into the ground, unfortunately.

In the centuries of spiritual darkness that followed I see three major areas where Ephraim stumbled big-time over Jesus:

1. When we changed his gospel of salvation by faith into a religion of works.

2. When we changed his role as Israel’s Jewish Messiah into a universal Christian Christ.

3. When we changed his identity as the Son of God into Deity, either as the second person in a Greek philosophical concept of God. Or into the Father Himself.

Let’s talk about it.

1. Our false religion

The first stumbling stone Satan used to trip up our forefathers was the idea that Jesus came to give us a new religion. It began when some of the Jews insisted all Gentile followers of Jesus needed to practice a hybrid form of Judaism. Basically it was Jesus  plus the Mosaic Law minus the sacrifices. That caused Paul to send an urgent letter to the church at Galatia warning them that trying to add any part of the Law to their faith was the same as returning to their former pagan religious mindset.

“Now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored in vain.” (Gal. 4:9-11)

The Jewish holy days alone weren’t the problem. Rather they symbolized the rudiments of religion, which Paul termed “the weak and worthless elemental things.” The “things” Satan wants us to add to our walk of faith to better “insure” our salvation. He knows how much better we feel when we think we are contributing something to our own salvation, and can take some small credit for it. Even though the New Testament says all such works are detrimental to our salvation.

So we can’t thank God enough for sending us the apostle Paul who held the line and insisted God no longer required His people to practice any form of religion – including the Mosaic Law. Even that God-inspired religion had been superseded “by a better covenant” (Heb. 8:6).

But Satan was not done. Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the turnover in Church leadership from Jewish to Gentile, he struck again. This time he used the so-called Church Fathers who had been nurtured, not on the Scriptures, but on the “wisdom” of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Before long they had formulated a new religion designed especially for the Gentile followers of Jesus. After all, the (unbelieving) Jews still had their religion based on the Old Covenant. Shouldn’t we “Christians” have one based on the New Covenant? And Christianity was born.

But this new religion was nothing less than a Trojan Horse that allowed an army of Greek pagan ideas to secretly infiltrate the “City of God” and capture our minds and bring us into religious bondage. Its steepled high places, man-made holy days, false priesthood, unscriptural doctrines, and a hierarchy modeled on the world’s system of government all promoted a salvation of works that was polar opposite to the message of faith righteousness. Paul had warned us about this deception, but we didn’t listen:

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Messiah.” (Col. 2:8).

Within a few hundred years the Church was completely corrupted and the Gospel unrecognizable. But God didn’t leave us there. He raised up men emboldened by His Spirit to expose the lies and set us free. Yet even though many false doctrines were uncovered at the cost of much blood, many believers still continue to drink the Kool-Aid. Nevertheless the truth is now out there and available to all who have ears to hear. Numerous books have been published in recent years that document the unscriptural foundations of organized Christianity, urging us to wake up and follow Jesus.

For starters, I recommend Frank Viola and George Barna’s book, “Pagan Christianity.” You can also go to my web site, www.bhennessy.com, where you’ll find several in-depth articles on the whole subject, including my book, “Valley of the Steeples,” which tells of my own family’s spiritual awakening within Roman Catholicism.

2. Our false messiah

          The next stone Ephraim stumbled over grew out of our new Gentile religion.

          Once you have a new religion you want the founder to look more like you. And since we weren’t Jewish something had to be done. So within a few centuries after his ascension Jesus got a complete makeover. It began naturally, I believe, when the Hebrew word “Messiah” became the Greek word “Christ” in the New Testament. This non-Hebraic word subtly disconnected Jesus (Yeshua) from being the “Messiah” of Israel and opened the way for a more cosmopolitan image to emerge. No longer would he be celebrated as the son of David, Israel’s “kinsman redeemer,” the hope of Abraham’s family. That was Old Testament talk. Now he was the universal Christ, the head of a worldwide multi-national Gentile Church and savior of all mankind. In effect, Jesus was uncircumcised.

            The depth of his Christian “conversion” was brought home to me recently in the punch line of a joke. The joke went like this: Melvin, a Jewish man from Brooklyn, was complaining to his friend Moshe that he’d sent his son to Israel to become a better Jew, only to have him come home a Christian. On hearing this Moishe exclaimed, “Why the same thing happened to my son!” Upset that this was happening they went and asked their rabbi for an explanation. But the rabbi was as bewildered as they and suggested they go to God. So bowing their heads they asked God how their sons could visit Israel and come home Christians. Suddenly lightening flashed, and a booming voice answered, “I wish I knew. The same thing happened to My son.”

So complete was Jesus transformed into a Gentile that many Jews today are shocked to discover he was one of their own, much less that he fulfilled some 300 OT prophecies concerning the Messiah. Likewise, many Christians are as equally unnerved when they learn the head of the Christian Church was a Jewish man. I once debated with a man on the internet who insisted Jesus was never a Jew but the first Palestinian Christian. It was bizarre.

When Jesus was finally airbrushed out of the story of Israel, all the OT prophecies that spoke of Messiah’s coming to restore Israel and make it the center of his worldwide kingdom fell by the wayside. In the new theology God was finished with that ancient kingdom in his dealings with mankind. They considered that old technology.  It was just too limited in its geographical parameters and physical requirements to reach the global market. God may have used Israel to bring forth Jesus, but now the apple of His eye was the Universal Church. With this He would Christianize the world and all its institutions and make everything right. (Which means that the man who claims to be the earthly head of this false body of Christ reveals himself to be antichrist.)

Soon Israel itself was little more than a metaphor for “God’s people,” an entity to which we could all now belong by virtue of our faith. Ancient Israel with her Jewish descendants was categorized as one more OT type and shadow and retired along with the Mosaic Law. (Which is why modern Israel with its claims to be the resurrected nation is treated with such disrespect by many Christian denominations today.)

But is this the role God ordained for Israel and her Messiah as revealed in the Bible?  Certainly not. For as the angel Gabriel told Mary, Jesus would “reign over the house of Jacob forever” (Luke 1:33). God’s plan has always been to defeat the evil world system of mankind through a restored Israel under Messiah.

 So we see how Ephraim stumbled a second time. But as bad as those two stumblings are, they were nothing compared to the third.

  3. Our false god

When Jesus was finally severed from both his Jewish roots and his role as Israel’s savior he became a man without a country -  and an identity. It was left up to the theologians to define who this man was who had trod the earth displaying such supernatural power. Who possessed more wisdom than the wisest man who ever lived. And who even had the chutzpah to claim he was the Son of God.

It didn’t take them long to craft for him a much grander identity. One that no first century Israelite believer would have ever dared to say or think. He would become the Christian God.

If you, dear reader, have accepted without question that Jesus was Deity, either God the Father or God the Son, then it might upset you to learn that he was neither.

For some 1700 years most Christians have accepted without question that Jesus was some form of deity. But if asked, was he the Father or the Son? – a blank look comes upon their face as they wrestle with a question they‘d never been asked to consider before. Some will eventually say he was the Father, because didn’t he say “the Father and I are one?” Others will repeat the Trinitarian formula devised by the Catholic Church in the fourth century that says he was not the Father, but God the Son, the second person of the godhead. But most Christians, if they are honest, will admit they aren’t sure what he was. Only that he was somehow deity.

  Well the time has come in the spiritual growth-life of the followers of Messiah to think about it. And think hard about it. For it not only concerns the identity of the one in whose hands we have placed our entire salvation, but the identity of the One who sent him. Shouldn’t we know who Jesus was? And who he was not? Because if he was God, then we should by all means worship him as such. But if he was not, then to worship him as God becomes a form of idolatry. So I ask again, was he the Father or the Son? He can’t be both.

Paul, who always started his letters by distinguishing between God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, told us exactly who Jesus was. Writing to Timothy, he declared: “There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 3:5). Here Paul calls him a “mediator,” one who acts as a bridge between God and His human creation for the purpose of reconciliation. But he clearly positions him as a “man,” making him one of us. But what kind of man? He was obviously head and shoulders above any man who has ever lived.

Well he certainly got off to a unique start in life when he was conceived by God’s spirit in the virgin Mary. He had been supernaturally inserted into the family of Abraham, but without the sin infection that plagued the rest of Adam’s race.  He was sin free, and remained so his whole life. Paul describes him also as God’s second Adam, the prototype of a new generation of human beings.

“So also it is written, ‘the first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45).

He was in effect Adam’s replacement, sent by God to set us free from the death that imprisoned the whole human race. In him, Abraham’s chosen seed would die and be resurrected to become - “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” (1 Peter 2: 9). But we are still in the womb, so to speak. But one day soon we will come forth in Jesus as God’s fully developed corporate son.” Indeed all of creation now groans and suffers pains of childbirth, “waiting eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God” (Rom 8:19).

But if the Bible declares Jesus to be a man, why do we continue to insist he was God?

 How we got bamboozled

All false teaching is usually a logical development of some biblical truth taken to extremes. A thought is added to the truth that alters it just enough to put a believer on the path to spiritual destruction. The opening sales pitch is all too familiar. “Indeed, has God said?” Followed by the addition, “Surely you will not die! For God knows that in the day you shall eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3: 1,5,6).

Jesus was called “the son of God” because he was supernaturally conceived in Mary by the spirit of God (Luke 1:35). But that does not make him “God the Son.” Any more than it made his mother the Mother of God (another rationalization that became an idolatrous Church doctrine; Council of Ephesus, 431 A.D.). Yet for those who wanted to turn him into a deity it was a simple step to suggest that God’s son must be made of the same substance as the Father (Council of Nicea, 325 A.D.) – therefore giving him the same divine nature as God.

But God called the angels “sons of God” (Gen. 6:2; Job 1:6) and they weren’t deity. Adam was called “the son of God” in Luke 3:38 and he wasn’t deity. Solomon, Ephraim and all Israel are also referred to as sons of God (2 Sam. 7:1; Jer. 31:9; Ex. 4:22) and none of them were deity. And all the followers of Jesus call Him Father, have His Spirit, are made in His image and likeness, and are described as “sons of God” (Gal. 4:6) - and we’re certainly not deity. So why is Jesus the only one promoted to deity?

Even worse, in order to make Jesus “God the Son,” Yahweh had to become a deity with multiple personalities – a case of divine schizophrenia. At first they defined God as being a two-person Godhead (Council of Nicea). But 56 years later the Holy Spirit was included to make Him a Trinity (Council of Constantinople, 381 A.D.).  But that is a Deity unknown in Scripture. Listen to this honest admission by Trinitarian scholar, Shirley C. Riley:

“The Bible does not teach the doctrine of the Trinity. Neither is the word “trinity” itself, nor such language [as] “one-in-three,’ ‘three-in-one,’ one ‘essence, and three ‘persons’ biblical language. The language of the doctrine is the language of the ancient church taken from Greek philosophy.” (Christian Doctrine, pgs 76,77)

The Greeks, who were always finding ways to turn gods into men, and men into gods, believed in a three-layered hierarchy of gods. And the Church Fathers, who thought the Greek philosophers to be God’s prophetic provision of wisdom to the non-Jewish world, drew heavily from their teachings.  Joel Hemphill in his book, Glory to God on the Highest, gives an overview of Greek theology:

“The Greeks of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. worshipped three main gods: Zeus (the sky), Poseidon (the sea) and Hades (the bowels of the earth). However, they believed in a hierarchy among the three, with Zeus “enthroned as Father God over all gods.” Under these three they worshipped a “swarm” of lesser gods that may be divided into seven groups: sky-gods, earth-gods, fertility-gods, animal-gods, subterranean-gods, ancestor or hero-gods, and Olympians.” (pg. 311)

It shouldn’t surprise us to see the Catholic Church, the originators of the Trinity doctrine, elevating thousands of deceased men and women to the status of “patron saints.” Often giving them names similar to former pagan deities. These sanctified beings are then called upon to protect and bless us in the various activities of life. For example, St Christopher is the patron saint of travelers. St. Joseph the “house-god” who will help you sell or buy a home.

This idea of a three-part Godhead, we were told, is confirmed by the fact we are made in the image of likeness of God in that we have three parts: a body, soul, and spirit. But that is a misleading argument. Being made in His image and likeness no doubt means He too has a body, soul and spirit. If we were like him in the mode of being three in one, then we would have three separate personalities living within us, too. And we’d all be under psychiatric care.

Finally, is it any wonder the Jews have been so unwilling to believe in this Jesus we insist is their Messiah. For we have turned a man into God, or God into a man (depending on which Christian you speak to). God had already told Israel He was not a man. “For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst” (Hosea 11:9). And through Isaiah declared, “I am the first and the last; there is no God besides Me” (Isa 44:6). Jesus himself rebuked Satan for trying to redirect worship away from God, quoting Moses who said, “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only” (Luke 4:8).

Was he the Father?   

Perhaps you don’t believe for one second this doctrine that God is made up of  three divine separate personalities. But believe instead that Jesus was none other than Father God Himself visiting His creation in human form. That is you hold that that there are not three persons in one Godhead (three separate gods) but one God manifesting Himself as three persons, thereby preserving the unity of God.

If so, leaving the “person” of the Holy Spirit aside for a moment, let me ask you to consider the following questions:

1. If Father God was Jesus, who was Jesus talking to every time he went off into the wilderness to pray?

2. If Father God was Jesus, who then declared, “This is My beloved son in whom I am well pleased” (  Matt. 17:5).

3. If Father God was Jesus, why did Jesus say, “the Father is greater than I?” (John 14:28 ) And that the Father knew things he didn’t? (Matt. 24:36)

4. If Father God was Jesus on earth, why did he continually tell his disciples the Father was in Heaven?” (Matt 7:21; 10:32; 16:17;18:14).

5. If Father God was Jesus, why did he cry out on the cross, “Father, forgive them.” Why didn’t he just forgive them himself?

6. If Father God was Jesus, how could he say he and the Father counted as two witnesses? (See John 8:17,18.)

7. If Father God was Jesus, why is Jesus now seated at the Father’s right hand?

These are just a few of the hundreds of questions that could be asked to show why Jesus and the Father have to be two very distinct and separate beings. To say Jesus was the incarnation (a word that is not in the Bible) of the Most High God implies that Jesus was in fact not a real man. It would be analogous to the cartoon character of Superman, who disguised himself “as mild-mannered reporter, Clark Kent.”  Beneath his ordinary human appearance he was Superman in body, soul and spirit. Clark Kent did not really exist. Likewise, if God was just visiting planet Earth as Jesus, then Jesus as a unique person did not exist (no matter how the theologians spin it). And Scripture declares such a teaching to be the spirit of antichrist.

“By this you [will] know the spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh [not “that God has come in the flesh”) is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus [has come in the flesh having his own body, soul and spirit]... is not from God; this is the spirit of antichrist” (1 John 4:2,3).

            As for the Holy Spirit, “he” is the spirit of Father God sent to dwell in our midst. God, after all, is a spirit. And he can be everywhere, including in all of us. But nowhere do we see Jesus talking to the Holy Spirit as if he was a separate person. “He” was the power and wisdom and comforting presence of God that dwelt in Jesus, and in all who are the chosen followers of Jesus. The Spirit and the Father truly are one and the same.

Jesus was one of a kind

So if Jesus was not Deity, nor an angel, “For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are My son, today I have begotten you?’ (Heb. 1:5) – nor an ordinary man, then who was he?

As he told us repeatedly, he was “the son of God.” Can’t God, who created all living things, create a unique being, a new man, who is so perfect that he could be called His son - “the image of the invisible God?” (Col. 1:15). One so filled with God’s spirit it could be written that - “in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form?” (Col. 2:9) One so holy and righteous that he was “the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature?” (Heb. 1:3) After all, until God made Eve, Adam was the only human being in all of creation. He too was one of a kind. And he too was called “the son of God” (Luke 3:38).

 When Jesus came into the world he represented God so faithfully to a now fallen and lost creation that to meet him was to meet the Father (who dwelt in him). But he himself was not the Father. Or any part of Deity. He had in him the omniscience of God, but he himself was not omniscient. For he admitted he did not know all things (Matt. 24:36). He had in him the omnipotence of God, but he himself was not omnipotent. For at times he couldn’t perform miracles (Matt 13:57). He had in him God’s omnipresence, but he himself was not omnipresent. For the Bible never shows him to be in two places at the same time. And he had in him all the sufficiency of God, but he himself was not self-sufficient. Rather he was completely dependant. All his authority, power and glory were given to him by God (Matt. 28:18; John 17:2,22).

              If Jesus wanted to reveal he was God incarnate, he had plenty of opportunities to do so when speaking privately to his disciples. But he never did. The perfect time would have been when he asked Peter - “Who do you say that I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the son of the Living God” (Matt 16:15,16). And Jesus told him he got that answer directly “from my Father who is in Heaven.” Adding nothing about himself being the Living God.

Well, what about the things he said to his disciples that did sound like he might be God? Saying, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me” (John 14:11), is not the same as saying “I am the Father!” Saying, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) does not mean they are the same being. Jesus prayed we too would be as one with the Father as he (John 17:22), showing their oneness was a spiritual unity we too will enjoy one day. And saying “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) does not mean he was the Father. But rather it just confirms that, “God was in Messiah, reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor. 5:18). Clearly Jesus and God are two very different beings, as distinct in nature and purpose as they are separate in number.

The very fact Jesus called God his father should tell us right there he was not eternal, but had been generated at some point in time. He had a beginning. John calls him “God’s only begotten son” (John 3:16). In fact, it seems God started creation off with him. We are told he was “the beginning of the creation of God” (Rev. 3:14). and “the firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15). So we see Jesus was not the Creator, but a created being. One whom God honored above all the rest of His creation and “appointed him heir of all things, through whom He also made the world” (Heb. 1:2 ).

 Yes, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8), but unlike Almighty God he had a starting point.

Messiah ben Joseph

The old Jewish rabbis were always puzzled by the prophecies concerning the coming of Messiah. The Scriptures seemed to be pointing to two Messiahs. One who would come as a suffering servant (Isaiah 53), who they named Messiah ben Joseph. The other who would come as a conquering king, who they called Messiah ben David (Jer. 23:5,6). They didn’t see that it could be same Messiah coming twice, once to die for the sins of the people, and a second time to put down all of Israel’s (and God’s) enemies.

 But the role as the suffering servant does point us to the story of Joseph. And in that unique life I believe we can gain a good understanding of who Jesus was vis a vis the Father. We see it in Pharaoh’s appointment of Joseph to act as Pharaoh (who was considered God incarnate) to the whole nation of Egypt. “You shall be over my house, and according to your command all my people shall do homage; only in the throne I will be greater than you” (Gen. 41:40). He then instructed all Egypt to “bow the knee” before him. But for all his power and authority and honor Joseph was not Pharaoh. He just represented him before the nation. Can you not see in this the story of Jesus?

The question always arises, “was Jesus preexistent?” Was he the “wisdom” personified in Proverbs 8 who was present with God at the creation of the earth?” Was he the ‘certain man dressed in linen” who appeared to Daniel to tell him what must happen in the last days (Dan.10:5-12:13)? And apparently the same man who appeared to Ezekiel (Ezek 9:2-10:6)? It would seem so when you compare Dan. 10:6 with Rev. 1: 14,15. Plus, the “linen” garment suggests the wearer to be the one who atones for the sins of Israel, since that was what the high priest of Israel was to wear the one day of the year he would go into the Holies of Holies (Lev. 16:4).

Joel Hemphill argues strongly in his books that he was not preexistent in any form. He believes he was spoken into existence at the beginning of creation but was not actually manifested until his conception in Mary’s womb. He treats all the verses that seem to teach of his preexistence as examples of God speaking of future things as if they already were. And points to this verse in Peter’s first letter as support: “For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.” 1 Peter 1:20

I am not so convinced. I read in the gospel of John that “he was in the beginning with God” (v. 2), that “all things came into being through him” (v. 3), and that “the world was made through him (v. 10).” And I read in Hebrews he was “appointed heir of all things, through whom God made the world” (Heb. 1:2). So it is hard to think that he was not somehow present and intimately involved in the process of creation – even if he was not yet born a human being. But it may be a mystery that won’t be revealed until he comes again. And to be honest, I don’t know how important it really is as long as we know he wasn’t God.

Final thoughts

It seems to me that almost all the Scriptural reasons given for ascribing deity to Jesus are based on the reactions of the Jews in the Bible who were incensed that he called God his Father. Or are attempts based on preconditioning to read into his responses claims to deity he never actually made. Or they are premised on the belief that no one could display such power, authority and wisdom unless he was God.  As if supernatural powers and wisdom haven’t been manifested on earth before by men such as Moses, Elijah, and the apostles. In fact Jesus promised that even we would do more than he did – “and even greater works than these will he do; because I go to the Father” (John 14:12).

I realize there are a few verses that refer to the Messiah as “God” - such as the words of Isaiah celebrated in Handles Messiah (Isa. 9:6). And Psalm 45:6,7, which declares, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,...therefore God, your God, has anointed you.” And John 1:18, which in the NAS reads, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained Him.” (How can there be a “begotten God”?) These are all difficult passages, but it helps to realize the word “God” is sometimes used in the Bible to mean “a magistrate” – not Almighty God (Strongs #2316). For example, God told Moses he would be “as God” to Pharaoh (Ex. 4:16). And Jesus reminded the Jews who thought he was making himself out to be God, “has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said you are gods” (John 10:34).

Seeing how many ways we have stumbled over Messiah is a sobering revelation. It shows how we must continually remain humble and tender before God and never assume we have arrived because we are His people - “washed in the blood of Jesus.” The Jews also thought they were his people and eternally safe. Yet most not only missed the move of God in the first century, but actively opposed it.

In the days ahead, as in times past, many Christians will stumble over Messiah Jesus and fall. We have Isaiah’s word on it. But those chosen from among Ephraim’s and Judah’s offspring who are truly his sheep have the assurance God will provide the grace needed to bring us through victoriously. We have God’s word on that, too.

 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, and through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24,25)

October, 2011                                                                                     www.bhennessy.com