Question:

I have a question regarding Jesus as being God. It is clearly stated in the Gospel of John, and in some of the epistles that Jesus is God as well as the Son of God. But after some research I found that the reliability of the Gospel of John and of those epistles are subject to debate, more than the other books of the New Testament. I am a Christian and this had brought many doubts about who Jesus is. There is no doubt that the other Gospels and the epistles who are clearly accepted as Paul depicts a divine Jesus. But do they say He is God? Or is He just a divine creation of God like the Jehovah Witness believes… Could you help me find references in the Synoptic gospels and in the epistles whose authorship are not debated that Jesus is seen as God? Thank you very much.

Answer:

That Jesus is God is established by many verses in the New Testament.  It certainly is not just found in the book of John!  Colossians 2:9, Titus 2:13 and many more show that Jesus is God.  Having said that, it is true that of the four gospels, John is the one which has the most clear statements which explicitly say that Jesus is God.  It is implied in Matthew, Mark and Luke, but only specifically stated in John.  That is true.  In the other three gospels Jesus is reticent to put his being the Messiah and being God out there too strongly earlier in his ministry as “his time [to be killed] had not yet come.”  Yet, we learn in John that, although he was cautious about making this too public too often, it is not as if he did not tell people at all who he was.  The gospels do not contradict, but they do show different aspects of what Jesus did.

My guess is that you have come across Muslim web sites–either that or Jehovah Witness web sites.  This is the most common source of these bogus claims that the Book of John is unreliable.  This is because Muslims understand that their entire religion collapses if it is true that Jesus is God.  For this reason, they try to create the false impression that there is doubt about the reliability of the Book of John.  However, the facts do not support this biased claim.  The gospel of John has been acknowledged to be inspired and part of the canon of the New Testament from the first century.  It is quoted by Clement of Rome by the first decade of the second century. It is true that in the second century some debated whether Revelation or Hebrews of 2 Peter should be accepted into the canon, but John was never in doubt, and neither were the books of Colossians or Titus.  Period.  The people you have been listening to are deceiving you. What is the basis for doubting the reliability of John?  There is none as far as I know.  Some have doubted that the apostle John wrote this book.  The problem with this is that the earliest writings we have from the church are unanimous that John wrote this book.  They should know, as they knew people who knew John.  Besides, the church chose the canon and John has never been in doubt as to whether or not it should be in the canon of Scripture.  You will do well to dismiss outright these claims that the Gospel of John is in doubt as to its inspiration.  The only ones who make this claim are those who do not want to accept the obvious, which is that Jesus is God.

Anyway, here are some other scriptures outside of John which prove that, according to the Bible, Jesus is God.    Coll 1:16 (compare to Hebrews 2:10)  All things were created by God and all things were created by Jesus.  Jesus is God.   Heb 1:2 tells us that the entire universe was created through Jesus.  Therefore Jesus is God as God is the only thing that preexisted the universe.  The Old Testament consistently presents God as Creator, because he is, and the New Testament, more specifically, tells us that Jesus is the Creator.  Therefore Jesus is God. Of course, there is Colossians 2:9 which tells that Jesus is the fullness of deity (God) in bodily form.  Besides there is Titus 2:13 in which Paul tells us that Jesus is our God and our Savior.  Philippians 2:5-6 tells that Jesus, in his very nature, is God.  In Zechariah 12:10 we are told that God was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, and we know this is a reference to Jesus.  In Isaiah 9:6-7 the Messiah is given the name God with us.  He is “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God.”  That Jesus is God is maintained in both the Old and the New Testaments, which is consistent, of course, with the Book of John.

I am attaching some notes on the Jehovah Witness group in case that will be helpful to you.   Jehovah Witness

John Oakes