Question: A popular Bible teacher in our area who has been highly regarded for many years within ...

May 1, 1998

TBC Staff

Question: A popular Bible teacher in our area who has been highly regarded for many years within evangelical circles (not a charismatic) has begun to teach that Jesus is not our Creator, that He was only God temporarily, that He is called the Son of God because God the Father sired Him through Mary and that He is now an exalted man and only a man in heaven. Because this Bible teacher has been so highly regarded, these teachings are being widely accepted. What can you say that would be helpful in this situation?

Response: It is tragic that so many Christians follow men rather than God through His Word. To any student of the Bible, such ideas would immediately be seen as the most obvious heresy. But because of their high regard for the teacher, those influenced by him surrender their own understanding of clear biblical teaching in deference to the leader whom they admire. That is how cults are formed.

The Bible clearly says that Mary, while still a virgin, “was found with child of the Holy Ghost” (Mt 1:18), not “of the Father.” The Holy Spirit is not called the Father of Jesus, yet it was through His agency that a child was formed in Mary’s womb. Obviously the terms “Father” and “Son of God” contain no connotation of the Father “siring” Jesus. Indeed, God is said to have a Son in the Old Testament before Jesus was born in Bethlehem: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry” (Ps:2:12)....“[W]ho hath established all the ends of the earth [obviously, God]? What is his name, and what is his son’s name...?” (Prv 30:4).

That God involves a plurality of persons is taught throughout the Old Testament as well as in the New. The very Hebrew word elohim, which is used for God about 2,500 times in the Old Testament, is a plural form indicating a number more than two. Having gone into this in detail in the past in books and the newsletter, I won’t take time to go over it again. If you want biblical references, you may write and request our tract on the Trinity.

God says, “I change not” (Mal:3:6). Thus God the Son, who took a human body in becoming man through the virgin birth, must always continue to be God. That Jesus was God as a man in this world is clear. In the Old Testament, the God of Israel repeatedly declares that He is the “only Savior” (Ps:106:21; Is 43:11; 45:22; 49:26, etc.); whereas the New Testament makes it equally clear that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and He is frequently called “God our Savior” (1 Tm 1:1; 2:5; Titus:1:4; 2:13, etc.). God the Father says to Christ after His incarnation (“when he bringeth the firstborn into the world”), “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever...” (Heb:1:8). And one of the characteristics of God is changelessness: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb:13:8).

That Christ is our Creator must be true because He is God. The Bible also states it clearly: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (Jn:1:3). If man was created (which he was), then he was created by Christ. And inasmuch as Christ made everything that was made, then He himself must be uncreated, and by this argument also He is God.

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