In John 10:30 Jesus said, "I and my Father are one." This
verse, according to Christians, shows God and Jesus Christ to be same.
On the other hand, we read in John 20:17, "Jesus saith unto her,
Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren,
and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my
God, and your God." Here Jesus stated that there was a distinction
between him and God. In other words that Jesus himself had a God. Also,
Matthew 27:46 "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice,
saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?" Here Jesus Christ cried in loud voice calling
for his God.
These are two different and opposite ways Jesus relates himself to God.
The first one, he and God are one, and the second, he refers
to a higher authority than him which is God. Now assuming that both
are correct statements then we have a contradiction. If, for example, Jesus
Christ was God himself as in John 10:30 then it would be more appropriate
for him to say "...and to myself, and your God." in John
20:17, or "Myself, Myself, why hast thou forsaken me?" in
Matthew 27:46. If, on the other hand, one of them is wrong and the other
is correct then we have to discard the one we believe to be incorrect!
Since God does not make mistakes then we no longer believe the Bible is
the word of God (because we believe there is a contradiction of God’s words
in the Bible).
A third possibility is that we have to look at how we can interpret
the words of Jesus in those verses. As far as John 20:17 and Matthew 27:46
it is very clear Jesus had a God whom he prayed to and Whom had a higher
authority than his own. We can back this up with other verses from the
Bible that say, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I
judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the
will of the Father which hath sent me." (John 5:30). Also Jesus
said, "...for my Father is greater than I" (John 14:28).
If Jesus and God were the same then he would not have said what he said
in the above verses.
Now, the only verse that can be interpreted is John 10:30. It is the
only one that does not render itself clear. The only way John 10:30 could
be interpreted such that it does not contradict all the other verses is
by saying that Jesus meant he and God had something in common.
To find out what the common grounds were, we have to look at the context
in which this verse came:
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me:
John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
John 10:29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all;
and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
John 10:30 I and my Father are one.
As can be seen from John 10:28 and John 10:29 Jesus was telling the
Jews that he and God share something in common, and it was: no one can
pluck the faithful from either of their hands. This was the common factor
between Jesus and God in this case, and not that Jesus was himself God,
or that they were exactly the same.
Let us go on to see what Jesus says in John 10:
John 10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
John 10:32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed
you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
John 10:33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone
thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest
thyself God.
John 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law,
I said, Ye are gods?
John 10:35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came,
and the scripture cannot be broken;
John 10:36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and
sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of
God?
John 10:37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
John 10:38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the
works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in
him.
John 10:39 Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped
out of their hand,
John 10:40 And went away again beyond Jordan…
In John 10:31 we see that the Jews misunderstood what Jesus had meant
by "I and my Father are one." (John 10:30). And in John 10:33
they accused him of blasphemy. Now, had Jesus been God, or had he and God
been one in a literal sense then he wouldn’t have hesitated to clarify
the matter at that point. Jesus at that point said, "Is it not written
in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" What he was trying to say was
that if the Jews called "I and my Father are one" blasphemy
then they should call what was written in their law "Ye are gods"
blasphemy too.
The reasoning behind this is "Ye are gods" does not mean
that you, the Jews, are Gods, it is rather an expression. It just means
that you are godly people. The same applies to "I and my Father are
one." It does not mean that Jesus is God or that he and God are
the same literally. It’s just an expression. (The same goes for calling
himself "the Son of God." This statement should not be taken literally
either).
The Holy Quran says, "...Nothing whatsoever (is there) like the
like of Him, and He (alone) is All-Hearing and All-Seeing" (Ch
42: Vr 11). Nothing at all is like God, not Moses, not Jesus, not Muhammad,
and certainly nothing of His creation.
What about all these verses?
After I discuss the above with my Christian brothers they ask me, "but
what about the other verses that say Jesus is God?" and they show me some
of them. Some of these verses are:
- John 8:58 "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Before Abraham was, I am." My Christian brothers associate this
verse to the words God had said to Moses in the Old Testament when He said
to him in Exodus 3:14 "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and
he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent
me unto you." What Jesus said is similar to what God said to Moses.
Therefore they are the same.
- Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst of them." Here Jesus gives himself
a divine quality, being present as God.
- Revelation 1:17-18 "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the
first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and,
behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of
death." Jesus says that he is the first and the last. This is clearly
a divine quality. He also says that he has the keys of hell and of death.
This is also a divine quality.
I really don’t know how many more verses like these are available, but
let us assume that there are more. I reply to them that what they showed
me proves my point even further, and before I explain how, I relate the
following verse to them: - Mark 13:32 "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not
the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." It
is shown here that God and only God and not the son (Jesus) has the knowledge
of the time of the Judgment day. Jesus here denies his divinity (since
God knows everything).
- John 5:19 "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the
Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."
Here Jesus also says that his powers do not belong to him, and
he alone, without the help of God, can do nothing. Again Jesus is denying
divine qualities.
- John 5:30 "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge:
and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will
of the Father which hath sent me." Here Jesus also denies any divine
qualities. He (Jesus), without God can do nothing.
- John 20:17 "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet
ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend
unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." Also,
in Matthew 27:46 "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud
voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?" Here Jesus, in the first verse, says
that he has a God, and in the second he cries out for his God. Surely God
does not have a god. Jesus clearly shows that he has a God and that he
is not divine.
- John 5:37 "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." Jesus clearly states that no one had even heard God’s voice,
and not even seen His shape. This is Jesus talking, his voice heard, and
his shape seen by those he is with at the moment, so it cannot be him that
he is referring to as the divine character, and that means that they (Jesus
and God) are not the same.
- John 14:28 "Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come
again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go
unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I." Here Jesus also
says that God is greater than Jesus. Again he is disclaiming divinity.
- Matthew 19:17 "And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There
is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep
the commandments." When a man referred to Jesus by good master,
Jesus replied to him by saying that there is only one good that is God.
If Jesus cannot even claim that he is good, then why should he claim that
he is God?
These are all verses from the Bible. Some show Christ to be God or having
some qualities of God and others show that he is not God and that he does
not have divine qualities. Which should we believe? Aren’t these contradictions?
I say to all my Christian brothers that brought me verses that claim Christ’s
divinity, "now you have to explain to me how this is possible. What does
all this mean?"