Monday, September 12, 2016

Questions Christians cant answer

I came across a post on Facebook that was shared by Sam Shamoun. He has a ministry where debates Muslims to show them that the God of the Bible is the one and only true God, and not Allah, the god of the Qu'ran. Look him up on YouTube and see his videos and learn how to answer questions that you may have to answer one day. I actually met Sam once at the Phoenix Arab Festival about 2 years ago. What an honor to meet such a great man of God. But I digress. The picture that he shared asked the following questions:

1) Where in the Bible did Jesus say He was God?
2) Where in the Bible did Jesus say "worship Me"?
3) Where in the Bible did  Jesus say He was the incarnation of God?
4) Where in the Bible did Jesus say He came to die for our sins?
5) Where in the Bible did Jesus say He was the begotten Son of God?

Disclaimer: I do not consider myself a Bible scholar or some type of Bible know it all. I just love Jesus, I love the truth and I love to read the word of God. But these questions are not very hard to answer. Not to make excuses, but I can only speak for myself when I say that right off the top of my head I don't know where the answers are located in the Bible, but I know the answers. The first question is definitely one I remember because it is a question that most Muslims and nonbelievers like to ask and try to stump Christians. Memorize John 8:58 and Exodus 3:14.  So I would like to encourage my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to learn how to answer these questions because we must be ready in and out of season to give an answer for the hope that we have. Read your Bible! Your life and the life of somebody else depends on it.

So here is my attempt at answering these questions...

1)  Where in the Bible did Jesus say He was God? John 8:58 "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM." Reference Exodus 3:14, God said to Moses "I AM who I AM; He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent you.'" Also, in John 18:6, when the Jesus was arrested and He had asked whom the Roman soldiers were looking for, the soldiers said they were looking for Jesus the Nazarene. Pay attention to the reply of Jesus. "I AM He" and the group that came to arrest Jesus fell back.

2)  Where in the Bible did Jesus say "worship Me"? Jesus never said to worship Him but He did not refuse worship from anyone who did. If He did not want for anyone to worship Him, He would have told them to stop. One example can be found in Matthew 14:33 says And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, "You are certainly God's Son!" Another example of Jesus not refusing worship is the story of the ten lepers in Luke 17. I want to point out in, starting in verse 12 through 15 the following:, "As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us" When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he say that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him." Once again, someone worshiped Jesus and the Lord did not correct them or stop them from worshiping Him.

3)  Where in the Bible did  Jesus say He was the incarnation of God? John 14:8-11 - 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “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 can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.  Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.

4) Where in the Bible did Jesus say He came to die for our sins? Matthew 20:28 - "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” So in this verse Jesus explicitly says that His purpose was to serve and not be served and to give His life for the ransom of many." This particular verse is crystal clear and there should not be any ambiguity or question that Jesus did in fact come to die for our sins.

5) Where in the Bible did Jesus say He was the begotten Son of God?  Son of God means that Jesus shared the same attributes as God the Father. It does not mean that God has sexual intercourse with a woman and had a son like humans do. The problem is that people try to make God into a man when the Bible clearly states that God is nothing like us. He is HOLY, HOLY, HOLY. He is perfect in his holiness. Another way of putting this is if God could take a "selfie", the picture would look like Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 14:9 "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." Jesus is the personification of God. In  John 18:37 the Bible says "For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth." When Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was, Peter said in  Matthew 16:16 "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus actually  praised Peter for this. If Peter was in error, Jesus would have rebuked Peter.

My conclusion is the problem is "Does the Bible answer my questions exactly as I word them?" But the Bible does answer the questions that are being asked and is very clear. If the word of God which is in the Bible is not good enough for you, then nothing else will. In Proverbs chapter 1 the Bible says that fools refuse wisdom and instruction.


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