Was Paul really convinced that Jesus was God His Father?
“He is the image of the invisible God…in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell.”
It doesn’t say Jesus IS God, it says he is the image of God. An image is a representation.
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (Joh 1:18)
Jesus was a representation of God since no man has ever seen God. But Jesus has. If no man has seen God, and all men saw Jesus at that time, how could Jesus be God His Father?
The fullness of God dwelled IN Jesus:
…as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee. (Jn 17:21)
…and I in them. (Jn 17:26)
In the prayer Jesus prayed to God He said God was in Him and also that He was in God. Furthermore, He is in them. So when it said “in him” it doesn’t mean He was God His Father.
Did Jesus imply He was God (who was also His Father)?
…before Abraham was born, I am.”
This doesn’t mean since He said “I am” that He is God his own Father. He was “with” His Father before the world was created. How could He then Be God?
Another thing, the word “God” isn’t the name of the Father of Jesus. He does have a name. His name is Yahweh or Jehovah. What’s more, the name of the Messiah, son of God, is not “Jesus”, in the original Hebrew it was “Yeshua”. In English Yeshua is pronounced Joshua. He only got that name when the translators translated the New Testament from Greek (Iēsou) to Latin, incorrectly rendering the name Iesu. Somehow they must have thought that would be a better translation than Joshua.
The English name Iesus or Ihesus was a Greek word Iēsous which was incorrectly transliterated from the original Hebrew Yeshua or Yehoshua (i.e. Joshua). The name Jesus did exist in the Hebrew, but it wasn’t the name the messiah was given at birth — his name was Yeshua, pronounced Joshua in English.
So even their proper names are not the same. We’re not talking about titles or figurative descriptions, we’re talking about their literal names. If the son and the Father were one in the same person, wouldn’t they have the same names?
Joh 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Here is another one that they use to try to prove Jesus is God, His own Father:
“I and the Father are one.”
Well is this means that Jesus is God His Father, then we are also God according to that reasoning:
that they may be one, as we are.
Now how does this one prove Jesus is God?
“He who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him who sent Me. And he who beholds Me beholds the One who sent Me.
It even says God, his Father, sent him. If his Father sent him how can they both be one and the same? That defies all logic.
Here is another one that they use:
…no one comes to the Father, but through Me
How can they both be the same one if a person has to go through Jesus first to come to His Father? The same logic follows in this next verse:
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (1Ti 2:5)
Try to imagine this: God is in Heaven, men are down here on earth and Christ Jesus is the mediator in between. This is obviously a picture of three separate and distinct entities: God, Christ and man. If Jesus is the mediator how can he be God also?
The truth is that Jesus was also “a God”:
Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? (Joh 10:34-36)
According to the belief of the day the son of a god was also a god. And since Jesus was the Son of God, that made him also a God. Making himself a god was blasphemy to them.
The next one is one of their favorites:
“Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:6-9)
They will say: “Obviously, this proves it:” ‘If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father’”. But doesn’t it seem strange that Jesus always referred to God as His Father and then He turns around and says, “you are looking at the Father”?
I speak that which I have seen with my Father… (Joh 8:38)
This commandment have I received of my Father. (Joh 10:18)
…for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (Joh 15:15)
…that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. (Joh 8:28)
…The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (Joh 5:19)
How Jesus described himself:
Jesus could only do what God, His Father, sent him to do:
I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. (Joh 5:30)
Jesus said His Father was greater than Him.
…My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; (Joh 10:29)
…The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. (Joh 13:16) …for my Father is greater than I. (Joh 14:28)
Jesus called His Father, his God. His God was the same God as the disciples’ God.
…I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (Joh 14:28)
He was taught by his God, Father and was given all power and authority by His Father.
…All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. (Mat 28:18) And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. (Joh 5:27)
If he were God, His Father, power and authority would never have had to be given him, he would have already had it.
The same yesterday, today and forever:
- He was created by God, His Father. ( the beginning of the creation of God — Rev 3:14)
- He was with God, His Father from the beginning. (which I had with thee before the world was — Joh 17:5)
- He was sent by God, His Father. (Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent — Joh 17:3)
- He was taught by God, His Father. (as my Father hath taught me — Joh 8:28)
- He obeyed God, His Father. (I do always those things that please him — Joh 8:29)
- He returned to God, His Father. (he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight — Act 1:9)
- He sits on the right hand of God, His Father. (Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God — Act 7:56)
- He is the Son of God, His Father. (Truly this man was the Son of God — Mar 15:39)
- God, His Father is his God and our God also AND OUR Father also. (my God, and your God, my Father and your Father — Joh 20:17)
- The Son and God, His Father can not possibly be one and the same person from everything Jesus said about himself and God, His Father.
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. (Mat 11:27)