Jesus' Status as God

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Daniel27

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Before I begin this post, I am not saying that Jesus was not actually God, or that He was not fully God. I fully believe that Jesus was and is God (as well as fully human). Just to put that out there in case some people interpret the following as contradicting the above.

It was brought up today in a lecture (surprisingly not in theology or associated courses) about the status of Jesus in the Gospels. Someone said that the Transfiguration was when “Jesus became God” to which the lecturer (a self-dubbed ‘man of faith’) said that that was correct. This was then followed up by the lecturer saying that it was at this point that Jesus Himself realised that He was God.

Can someone please provide some clarification on this? I thought that Jesus was always God and was always aware of that, but before today, I had never thought about it in any great detail.

Also, if this has any bearing on the lecturer’s answer, it is highly likely that he is a Presbyterian.
 
Daniel27 said:
Someone said that the Transfiguration was when “Jesus became God” to which the lecturer (a self-dubbed ‘man of faith’) said that that was correct.
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This is wrong. The Transfiguration is the moment when Jesus revealed a portion of His Divine nature to the three Apostles St. Peter, St. John, and St. James. But one can easily see that Jesus knew He was divine well before this due to His very words. And, Jesus being divine and having the Divine Will, He absolutely would know that He was Divine since the Divine knows all things.
But whoever is saying that Jesus didn’t know that He was God until the transfiguration is blatantly wrong. He knew well before.
One example of how young He was when He was found at the temple after His parents left Him there. What does our Lord say: “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (St. Luke 2:49) Here our Lord knows His identity as the Son of God, which means He knows that He is fully Divine being the Son of God.

God Bless
 
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Daniel27 said:
Also, if this has any bearing on the lecturer’s answer, it is highly likely that he is a Presbyterian.
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It is in fact highly unlikely that he is Presbyterian because Presbyterian doctrine affirms the Trinity as stated in the Three Ecumenical Creeds. He may claim to be Presbyterian (I am assuming this from your statement); however he rejects their doctrine.

That being said, there is nothing in the scriptures which even hint that Jesus was not fully God at any point in time. In fact, Jesus never acquired his divinity. John’s gospel, Matthew’s gospel, and Luke’s gospel affirm that Jesus was divine as do the Pauline corpus (see Philippians 2, Colossians 1, Titus 1). The letter to the Hebrews additionally affirms Jesus divinity from eternity (Hebrews 1 and 2) explicitly. Peter also confesses Christ as God (2 Peter) although he doesn’t address in his writings when Christ was God. Rather, the three gospel accounts mentioned present a divine Christ that acquires humanity through the incarnation, so this is exactly opposite of what this supposed professor was saying. In other words, its kind of the difference between Superman and Batman. Your professor is presenting a Batman Messiah, a human who through his own effort attains superior status as a God. The Gospels present a Superman Messiah, a God who condescends to live as a man among us.
 
Daniel27 said:
Someone said that 🙂 Transfiguration was when “Jesus became God” t
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God is Eternal, Therefore a person could never “become” God.

Also,
It is impossible that a created being could extend his existence back before creation began. The idea is a self contradiction. Therefore it is false .

John
 
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Mark’s Gospel also teaches that Jesus is God . See that n many other Bible verses in the New Testament That also teach it.

Although sometimes you will run into people promoting the false and dangerous teaching of Markan Priority who will advance the idea that Mark did not know that Jesus was God.

Bible Teaches Jesus is God


John
 
The transfiguration is when Jesus revealed Himself, in a profoundly direct manner, to three of the apostles, for their sake at the time and ultimately for ours as well.
 
Daniel27 said:
Can someone please provide some clarification on this?
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Sure. Your lecturer is mistaken in his theology.

Glad to clear that up for you. 😉

OK: the longer explanation might be “some Christians might hold to that idea, but the Catholic Church proclaims Christ as ‘fully divine and fully human’, as well as proclaiming that He always was aware of His divinity.” If some Christians don’t believe in that doctrine, then they have the right to their opinion. Doesn’t mean it’s correct, though. 🤷‍♂️
 
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I think it is more likely the professor was saying the Baptism of Jesus is when he became God. At both the Baptism and the Transfiguration, the Father declares “This is my beloved Son…” It would be odd to choose the later event as the beginning, though I suppose anything is possible.

Mark’s gospel begins with the baptism of Jesus, so it is easy to read it as saying that Jesus as God began at the Baptism. This is one of four versions of the gospel that the Church accepts, so the viewpoint is not outrageous. Still, the Church has long taught that Jesus is God for all of eternity, as early as the other three gospels in fact. Mark’s gospel needs to be read alongside the others, and not on its own, but its perspective needs to be preserved as well.
 
There are distinctions of the Divine Persons…

However - Their Identicalnesses surpass anything we know re: Persons/persons

Jesus is the WORD of God aka The Son of God… Et Cet…

Yet, to understand this …
one could come to see for instance the relationship between you and your word…
your word, as understood for instance in the relationship between
the very words which you speak … .and you.

Re: God… .Then… That can and should take a bit of time so as to garner more Understanding…
 
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