October 30, 2009
WWGHA (Chapter 18)
You can read Chapter Eighteen here.
Now we are really getting to the crux of the matter. Prayer and the Bible are important, but the question, “Who is Jesus?” is the thing on which everything else hangs.
This chapter is a very short introduction, and while I agree that Jesus claims to be God, I disagree on the author’s other point.
In Matthew 11 most agree that what John is inquiring about is not whether Jesus is God, but whether He is the Messiah (Greek: Christos). In Hebrew thought there were two Messiahs that were going to come: one to suffer and die under a curse, and another to triumphantly lead Israel out of captivity and slavery. Certain signs were supposed to accompany this Messiah, and that seems to be what John is asking about. The idea that the Messiah was actually God was not a common belief.
Besides this, finite miracles cannot prove an infinite God. That is, even the most impressive miracles don’t strictly speaking require an infinite God; all they require is a really, really powerful being. So, miracles can’t act as a logical proof of divinity by themselves. (Thanks to the Rev. Dr. Rob Sanders for teaching me this point.)
This makes very little difference for our present point though, since I heartily agree that Jesus claims in no uncertain terms to be God. It may, however, make a difference later in how we interpret certain passages, so I wanted to clarify.
