Did Jesus Claim to be God? Answering Bart Ehrman
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“Bart Ehrman argues that Jesus didn’t, himself, claim to be God, but this was a belief that arose subsequently after his death, among his followers.” - Gavin Ortlund
The Ongoing Fight Against the Jewishness of Jesus
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“Jesus, whose Hebrew name was Yeshua, was born in Bethlehem of Judea. His mother’s name was Miriam, and His followers were named Yaakov and Shimon and Yehudah, among others. …And when He comes again, He is returning to Jerusalem.” - Michael Brown
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The Tale of the Two Builders
Recently, our family drove from Washington State to Tennessee, to drop our oldest son off at college. One day, in the wilderness of western Colorado, I spied a shiny new Corvette ahead of me. It was plodding along at about 65 mph on a stretch of interstate where the speed limit was 80 mph. Yet, there he stayed—at 65 mph.
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Jesus Was Not a Long-Haired White Man
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“What’s more is that Jesus probably didn’t wear bright colors or a brilliantly white robe. Bright colors were expensive to make, and bleached white clothing was a mark of politicians. Common people usually wore earth tones, reflective of the natural color of the sheep’s wool used to create the garments.” - Kainos Project
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Refugee? Mixed-Race? Please stop co-opting Christ
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“…when it comes to identifying Christ as a mixed-race savior or as a refugee, I can understand the desire to do so….It might be simply that they are saddened for the refugees around the world and want to make Jesus more attractive to the refugee they are evangelizing. But even with these motives it is quite dangerous.” - Cripplegate
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What the Name “Jesus” Reveals
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“Yeshua means Yahweh saves. That this unique child’s name would be Yahweh saves was understandable for Joseph. Of course, God’s people needed saving — from the Gentiles. From the Romans who ruled over them; from local puppets of Caesar, like Herod and Pilate… . Then the bombshell: ‘he will save his people from their sins.’” - Mathis via Veith
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One is not like the other ...
The Septuagint (“LXX”) is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, dating to sometime in the mid to early 2nd century B.C. It came about because many Jews living abroad, particularly in Egypt, had lost much of their ability to read and speak Hebrew. They need a translation of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Scriptures) in their own language. The Mediterranean culture was heavily influenced by Hellenism at this time; a legacy of Alexander the Great’s conquests. So, the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek.
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What Child Is This?
Jesus’ birth was the beginning of the end for Satan and his kingdom of darkness. That old serpent, the devil, tried his best to stop Christ from coming into the world. He knew if he failed, his fate would be sealed. Over and over again, Satan tried.
In the wicked man Haman, he came near to pulling off a mass genocide of Israelites – cutting off Christ before He could come. Through Herod, he slaughtered untold numbers of young children in the region around Bethlehem (Mt 2:16-18).
The Apostle John summed up the matter in his vision of the dragon and the woman (Rev 12:4b-5a). Satan tried to stop His own Creator, God’s unique and one and only Son, from coming into the world. He failed. Instead, Jesus completed His work, then “was caught up to God and to his throne.”
Why did Christ come? He came to save us from ourselves.
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Jesus is a...what?
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The head of the religion department at Luther College in Iowa recently argued that Jesus Christ, the central figure of Christianity, was in fact, a Muslim. “‘Was Jesus a Muslim?” asks Prof. Robert F. Shedinger in the beginning of a book he published this year entitled Was Jesus a Muslim? “I will answer with a very qualified yes.”
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