Question: In Mt 1:23, who is Matthew referring to here that has been given the name which means "With Us Is God"?
Reply: Simply naming someone Imanuel does not make him God anymore than naming someone Jehu (meaning "Jehovah is He") makes someone Jehovah.
Question: The Bible says that ONLY God is our savior (Hos 13:4, Isa 43:11,45:21, etc.). How can it be then, that the Bible repeatedly says that Jesus Christ is our savior (Lk 2:11, Phil 3:20. Tit 2:13, 3:6, 2Pet 1:1, 2:20, 3:18, etc.)?
Reply: For the same reason Jehovah raised up saviours in the past:
"And when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, he raised for them a savior, Othniel, son of Caleb's younger brother, Kenaz." Judges 3:9, 15 NAB
"...he raised for them a savior, the Benjaminite Ehud" Judges 3:15
"Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries." Neh 9:27
Why, the very name "Jesus" points to God as the source of salvation. It means "Jehovah Is Salvation" and thus honors the Father as the Saviour to whom even the Son looked.
The Bible as a whole thus makes it clear that there is but one Saviour, Jehovah God. All others who have rightly been called saviours, including Jesus Christ, are not rival saviours. Rather, they were willing to be used by Jehovah God in this capacity. Hence, those desiring to gain divine approval must acknowledge that salvation proceeds from the Father through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
"This is good and pleasing to God our Saviour; who will everyone to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, there is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human." 1Tim 2:3-5 NAB
Question: If Christ was created by God and was the wisdom of God (Prov 8:1-4, 12, 22-31), then before Jesus would have been created, God would have had to have been without wisdom. How is it possible that God could have ever been without wisdom?
Reply: Actually, it has been primarily Catholics like the questioner here that have touted Jesus as Wisdom. I can just as easily turn this around and ask, why, if God always had wisdom, does the Catholic Bible say that Yahweh created wisdom (NJB) at the above scriptures. Obviously, it is a different wisdom, a personified one, because in Prov 8...Wisdom speaks...and talks of its enjoyment with Yahweh its creator.
Statement: Matt 28:19 says that we are to baptise in the name (onoma is the singular form of name in the Greek) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Reply: Using a singular form of NAME does not necessarily denote singularity.
Genesis 5:2 "Male and female created he them: and blessed them, and called their NAME Adam, in the day when they were created."
Here two distinct and separate individuals are called by one NAME.
Genesis 48:6 "And thy issue, that thou begettest after them, shall be thine; they shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance." All the brothers had
different names although the text represents that by the singular, "name".
It is interesting that the NIV and NEB distributes the term by translating it "names".
Genesis 48:16: "The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a mulititude in the midst of the earth." Did Abraham and Isaac have the same name? Clearly, the singular term here "name" is used in a distributive sense.
Mark 5:9: "Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ ‘My name is Legion,’ he replied, ‘For we are many.’" In this case one name was given to a plural number of distinct demons.
The Bible clearly distinguishes between the name of the Father and the name of the Son.
Proverbs 30:4 (NIV):" Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is HIS NAME, AND THE NAME OF HIS SON? Tell me if you know!"
Hebrews 1:4 (New Jerusalem): "So he is now as far above the angels as the title which he has inherited is higher than THEIR OWN NAME."
Revelation 14:1 (NIV): "Then I looked, and theme before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had HIS NAME AND HIS FATHER’S NAME written on their foreheads." It is quite obvious that the Father has one name and that the Son has another.
To look for anything else in Matt 28:19 also ignores the "authority" that is placed within the lexical range of ONOMA itself.
Statement: Jesus says, "...the Father is greater than I am." (John 14:28) This refers to the Father having a greater position when Christ was on earth. He did not say that the Father is better than Him because they are equal in essence.
Reply: But the text does not say that this only refers to Christ when he was on earth. This is a 4th century interpretation read back into this verse. Jesus showed us how to use this same Greek word right in the next chapter, "Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord." A relationship between servant and his lord is one of rank, authority and superiority.
Is this the same for Jn 14:28? In the Grimm-Thayer Lexicon, it says of John 14:28 that MEIZON "is used of those who surpass others-either in nature and power, as God"p. 395
The same word is used at John 1:50. "Jesus said...thou shalt see greater things than these."
Then Jesus continues, "And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." Is heaven not BETTER than anything we have yet seen?
Reply: Simply naming someone Imanuel does not make him God anymore than naming someone Jehu (meaning "Jehovah is He") makes someone Jehovah.
Question: The Bible says that ONLY God is our savior (Hos 13:4, Isa 43:11,45:21, etc.). How can it be then, that the Bible repeatedly says that Jesus Christ is our savior (Lk 2:11, Phil 3:20. Tit 2:13, 3:6, 2Pet 1:1, 2:20, 3:18, etc.)?
Reply: For the same reason Jehovah raised up saviours in the past:
"And when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, he raised for them a savior, Othniel, son of Caleb's younger brother, Kenaz." Judges 3:9, 15 NAB
"...he raised for them a savior, the Benjaminite Ehud" Judges 3:15
"Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries." Neh 9:27
Why, the very name "Jesus" points to God as the source of salvation. It means "Jehovah Is Salvation" and thus honors the Father as the Saviour to whom even the Son looked.
The Bible as a whole thus makes it clear that there is but one Saviour, Jehovah God. All others who have rightly been called saviours, including Jesus Christ, are not rival saviours. Rather, they were willing to be used by Jehovah God in this capacity. Hence, those desiring to gain divine approval must acknowledge that salvation proceeds from the Father through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
"This is good and pleasing to God our Saviour; who will everyone to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, there is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human." 1Tim 2:3-5 NAB
Question: If Christ was created by God and was the wisdom of God (Prov 8:1-4, 12, 22-31), then before Jesus would have been created, God would have had to have been without wisdom. How is it possible that God could have ever been without wisdom?
Reply: Actually, it has been primarily Catholics like the questioner here that have touted Jesus as Wisdom. I can just as easily turn this around and ask, why, if God always had wisdom, does the Catholic Bible say that Yahweh created wisdom (NJB) at the above scriptures. Obviously, it is a different wisdom, a personified one, because in Prov 8...Wisdom speaks...and talks of its enjoyment with Yahweh its creator.
Statement: Matt 28:19 says that we are to baptise in the name (onoma is the singular form of name in the Greek) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Reply: Using a singular form of NAME does not necessarily denote singularity.
Genesis 5:2 "Male and female created he them: and blessed them, and called their NAME Adam, in the day when they were created."
Here two distinct and separate individuals are called by one NAME.
Genesis 48:6 "And thy issue, that thou begettest after them, shall be thine; they shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance." All the brothers had
different names although the text represents that by the singular, "name".
It is interesting that the NIV and NEB distributes the term by translating it "names".
Genesis 48:16: "The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a mulititude in the midst of the earth." Did Abraham and Isaac have the same name? Clearly, the singular term here "name" is used in a distributive sense.
Mark 5:9: "Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ ‘My name is Legion,’ he replied, ‘For we are many.’" In this case one name was given to a plural number of distinct demons.
The Bible clearly distinguishes between the name of the Father and the name of the Son.
Proverbs 30:4 (NIV):" Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is HIS NAME, AND THE NAME OF HIS SON? Tell me if you know!"
Hebrews 1:4 (New Jerusalem): "So he is now as far above the angels as the title which he has inherited is higher than THEIR OWN NAME."
Revelation 14:1 (NIV): "Then I looked, and theme before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had HIS NAME AND HIS FATHER’S NAME written on their foreheads." It is quite obvious that the Father has one name and that the Son has another.
To look for anything else in Matt 28:19 also ignores the "authority" that is placed within the lexical range of ONOMA itself.
Statement: Jesus says, "...the Father is greater than I am." (John 14:28) This refers to the Father having a greater position when Christ was on earth. He did not say that the Father is better than Him because they are equal in essence.
Reply: But the text does not say that this only refers to Christ when he was on earth. This is a 4th century interpretation read back into this verse. Jesus showed us how to use this same Greek word right in the next chapter, "Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord." A relationship between servant and his lord is one of rank, authority and superiority.
Is this the same for Jn 14:28? In the Grimm-Thayer Lexicon, it says of John 14:28 that MEIZON "is used of those who surpass others-either in nature and power, as God"p. 395
The same word is used at John 1:50. "Jesus said...thou shalt see greater things than these."
Then Jesus continues, "And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." Is heaven not BETTER than anything we have yet seen?
It is unfortunate that many have to change the common meanings of words to buttress an errant theology.
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