Jesus is God

OK, all this answering of Jehovah's Witnesses that I've been doing lately has been really good for me.

It's forced me to think. It's led me to passages I haven't read in a long time. It's made me use my mind to investigate how well I have things thought-out.

But, I also highly value the church as a body. So, I pay attention to what other Christians are thinking and saying. I recently came across this:

There is no issue in the Bible of greater importance than the identity of the one who died for us to be our Savior -- Jesus Christ. We must therefore be sure that we are accepting Jesus for who He really is, because if we are not, we are following a false Christ (2 Cor. 11:4,13). Therefore, we will examine the biblical evidence that Jesus Christ is not only fully man, but also fully God.

Is God the Savior of the world? "Before me there was no God formed and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the LORD; and there is no savior besides Me," God tells us in Isaiah 43:10,11. This verse teaches several significant things:
1. There always has been and always will be only one true God.
2. There is no Savior of the world except for this one true God.
3. Therefore, the Savior of the world must be the one true God.

Is Jesus the Savior of the world? I do not think that anyone who has read the New Testament would dispute this. Even the Jehovah's Witnesses New World Translation (NWT) refers to Jesus as the Savior: "...and of the Savior of us, Christ Jesus" --Titus 2:13. Therefore, since: 1. The one true God is the only Savior of the world (Isaiah 43:10,11), and 2. Jesus is the Savior of the world (Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 1:1), 3. Jesus must therefore be the one true God. To deny that Jesus is the one true God, one would either have to deny that Jesus is the Savior, or say that God is lying to us in Isaiah 43:11. Neither alternative fits with Scripture.

The above quote is taken from this site, where the author's discussion continues for a few more paragraphs.

The author also further discusses the misuse of Greek translation by JW "scholars."

The existence of the New World Translation further illustrates the need for scholars who disagree with each other to work on translations. This prevents one group's theology from hijacking the intent of the Holy Spirit in the translation process.

But, poor scholarship aside, I want to focus on the main thing: Jesus is God.

Although Jesus never said, "I am God," he pretty much did.

A number of times, people said, "You are God," or something to that effect (e.g.) John 10:33. Jesus, even if he's just a good teacher, would have clearly denied that if it wasn't the case. But he never did.

More significantly, Jesus claimed to be God in a way that was plain as day to the Jewish audience he was speaking to. Check it out in John 8:57-59:

⁵⁷"You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"

⁵⁸"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" ⁵⁹At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

Obviously, undoubtedly, irrefutably (by anyone who approaches this passage without bias) Jesus is claiming to be "I AM." In Exodus 3:14, God reveals that His name is "I AM."

I love that name. I love the rich meaning within it. I won't go into it here, because it's kind of off-topic. Maybe later.

The point is that we know God's name is "I AM." In John 8:58, Jesus says, "before Abraham was born, I am!"

It takes either a serious abuse or lack of logic to miss the point that Jesus claimed to be God. Often pre-conceived notions of who Jesus is and isn't fuel these abuses of logic.