A Fake Jesus
“In this one God there are three distinct Persons, — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are perfectly equal to each other.” (Faith Of Our Father by James Cardinal Gibbons, Pub: 1897, p. 17)
IN THIS CONTEMPORARY era, often labeled the “post-truth” age, it pays a person to be extra cautious and prudent when engaging with news. The prevalence of fabricated information has significantly elevated the risk of encountering new deceptive content laden with fiction. Fake news, intentionally created to mislead, has the potential to yield tangible repercussions for those who embrace it as truth. Notwithstanding the collaborative endeavors of fact-checkers of some reputable media outlets, and social networking platforms to curb the dissemination of false information, imprudent consumers who remain indifferent to the veracity of news content continue to be victims of receiving “alternative facts” rather than objective truths, thereby exposing themselves to harmful consequences.
However, with the continued proliferation of self-styled Bible-toting preachers who take it upon themselves to proclaim what they interpret as the Good News, the peril of the unsuspecting person falling into the snare of false doctrines is much greater today than ever before. Thus, in dealing with religious doctrines, all must do well to exercise extreme carefulness and prudence, for on the line is no less than the salvation of the believer’s soul.
Curiously, many people nowadays seem to be more worried about, and more wary of, fake news than the more dangerous fake or false religious doctrines. They would rather spend precious hours fact-checking the details of secular news on current issues than pause to examine with objectivity and discernment whether their own religious doctrines have sound biblical basis or are mere human inventions. They suppose no well-meaning preacher would consciously and deliberately spread doctrines that he himself knows full well are false, deceptive, and destructive.
"A DIFFERENT GOSPEL"
The genuine Good News, or gospel, is the message of God by which those who believe will be saved if they hold on firmly to it, according to the Apostle Paul:
“And now I want to remind you, my brothers, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm. That is the gospel, the message that I preached to you. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it unless it was for nothing that you believed.”
(Reference: I Cor. 15:1-2 TEV)
But even as Paul underscored the importance of holding on firmly to the gospel for the attainment of salvation, he issued a word of warning against “a different gospel,” a gospel that has been distorted (Gal. 1:6-7, New American Standard Bible), hence, contrary to that which the apostles preached. Apostle Paul said:
“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
(Reference: Gal. 1:8 RSV)
The “different gospel” that the Apostle Paul warned against finds itself among false doctrines. These doctrines were, no doubt, concocted by no other than Satan, the original creator of fake news and the father of lies (John 8:44, New King James Version). And Satan’s instruments in spreading this “different gospel” are, based on the warning of Paul, preachers ― undoubtedly, false ones.
Now, therein lies the problem and difficulty. While as much as true believers would like the genuine gospel to be made known to the entire humankind, the problem is that not everyone has the correct understanding of it, let alone the right and authority to preach it. Why? Because the gospel has been kept secret in mystery (Rom. 16:25, Ibid.). Only the messengers of God are authorized to preach it, for to them alone has the knowledge of the gospel’s mystery been given, according to the Lord Jesus Christ:
“And He said to them, ‘To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And their sins be forgiven them’.”
(Reference: Mark 4:11-12 RSV, Emphasis Mine)
The Apostle Paul pointed out that the Good News or the divine message of salvation can only be proclaimed or preached by the messengers sent out by the Lord God Himself:
“And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? As the scripture says, ‘How wonderful is the coming of messengers who bring good news!’ But not all have accepted the Good News. Isaiah himself said, ‘Lord, who believed our message?’ So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ.”
(Reference: Rom 10:15-17 TEV, Emphasis Mine)
On the basis of these pronouncements of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul, it can be inferred that the existence and spread of “a different gospel,” with all its fake or false doctrines, are the result of all unauthorized preaching.
"A DIFFERENT JESUS"
One of the many false doctrines that Satan has managed to get countless people to believe in by means of false preachers is the doctrine about “a different Jesus.” In his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul admonished:
“For you gladly tolerate anyone who comes to you and preaches a different Jesus, not the one we preached; and you accept a spirit and a gospel completely different from the Spirit and the gospel you received from us!”
(Reference: II Cor. 11:4 GNT, Emphasis Mine)
The Jesus that the Apostle Paul warned about would be preached by false preachers is “a different Jesus” because “he” is not the One the apostles preached. The central issue whereon debates about Jesus usually focus is His true nature or state of being―that is, whether Jesus is God, or man, or both God and man. Hence, in order to identify the “different Jesus,” it is necessary to know first the nature or state of being of the real Jesus whom the apostles preached. What did the apostles preach concerning the nature of Jesus? God? Man? Both God and man?
The popular but grossly unbiblical belief about the true nature of Jesus is that He is both God and man. Catholics, Protestants, and other professing Christians hold this belief and keep it as an integral part of their central doctrine, the doctrine of the Trinity. On the other hand, the Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church Of Christ) maintains that Jesus Christ, according to the Bible, is man, not God; and that Jesus has only one nature: man, not God-man. So, who is the Jesus whom the apostles preached as far as His true nature or state of being is concerned? How did they make known His nature?
TWO NATURES? HUMAN AND DIVINE?
Before tackling this, it is best to inquire first―does the Bible support the belief that a single being can have two natures, man and God?
Who can better answer this than God, the Creator Himself. Does the Lord God approve of the belief that man can be a man and a god at the same time? Or that He, the Almighty God, is both God and man?
No, He does not. Declared the Lord God:
“I will not execute the fierceness of My anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God, and not man, …”
(Reference: Hos. 11:9 NKJV, Emphasis Mine)
According to the Lord God, He is God, and not man.
On the other hand, does God allow a man to have another nature besides being human—that is, being God also? No, He does not either. In Ezekiel 28:2, this is what God has to say:
“Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Because your heart is lifted up And you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods, In the heart of the seas’; Yet you are a man and not God, Although you make your heart like the heart of God.”
(Reference: New American Standard Bible, Emphasis Mine)
For God, a man is a man, and not God.
Based on the foregoing, it stands to reason that the apostles never taught that Jesus possesses a dual nature―both man and God―for that will downright run counter to the very pronouncements and teachings of the Lord God Himself: that He is God, and not man; and that a man is not God.
JESUS IS MAN, ACCORDING TO PETER
So, let us now find out: How did the apostles introduce the true nature of Jesus? In Acts 2:22-24, the Apostle Peter declared:
“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know―this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. ‘But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power’.”
(Reference: Ibid., Emphasis Mine)
Unequivocal are the words of the Apostle Peter on Jesus’ true nature. According to Peter, Jesus is “a man.” And to show that Jesus, who is a man, is different from God, and that Jesus and God are not one and the same Being, Apostle Peter said that Jesus “was a man whose divine authority was clearly proven to you by all the miracles and wonders which God performed through him.” Explicitly, it was really the Almighty God who did perform all those miracles and wonders, only utilizing Jesus in doing so in order to prove His (Jesus’) authority from God.
JESUS IS MAN, ACCORDING TO PAUL
How about the Apostle Paul―how did Paul make known the true nature of Jesus? In his First Letter to Timothy, 2:5, Paul declared:
“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”
(Reference: NKJV, Emphasis Mine)
Paul said that Jesus is Man. And, not only did Paul clearly say that Jesus is man, but he also unambiguously distinguished Jesus from God. He said Jesus is the Mediator between God and men. Expectedly, he would never have said that the Mediator between God and men is “the God Christ Jesus,” for he said “there is one God and one Mediator between God and men.”
Nowhere in any correctly translated verse of the Bible is there any single word or phrase from Paul or Peter or any of the other apostles that could be taken to mean that Jesus is either God or God-man.
JESUS IS MAN, ACCORDING TO JOHN AND JESUS HIMSELF
Even the Apostle John, author of the fourth Gospel and three epistles, made not even a single inference that Jesus is God or God-man. On the contrary, he quoted Jesus as saying in a prayer that the Father is the only true God. In that prayer, Jesus said:
“After Jesus had said this, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father…
And this is eternal life: to know you, the ONLY TRUE GOD, and the one whom you sent — Jesus the Messiah.”
(Reference: John 17:1,3 ISV, Emphasis Mine)
In His prayer, Jesus referred to the Father as the “only true God.” And the apostle who recorded it was John.
Moreover, even as Jesus pointed to the Father as the only true God who He said is spirit in nature, as written in John 4:24, He did not fail to make known His own true nature. And who else but Jesus Himself is more knowledgeable and credible on the issue in question? And when He spoke it, He did in no uncertain terms. Said Jesus:
“But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. …”
(Reference: John 8:40 NKJV, Emphasis Mine)
Widespread is the belief that Jesus is God, yet nothing could be farther from the truth. According to Jesus, He is a man who has told the truth which He heard from God. The true God is the One from Whom Jesus heard the truth that He told, while He, Jesus, who heard that truth from God, is a man.
In this passage alone, we can immediately see the absurdity of saying Jesus is God. Proponents of the Christ-Is-God doctrine are faced with a hard reality that they can not reconcile no matter how much explaining or twisting they do of the scriptures when based on the true definition of the term “Trinity,” which states, “In this one God there are three distinct Persons, — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are perfectly equal to each other” (Faith Of Our Father by James Cardinal Gibbons Pub: 1897, p. 17). Thus, if Christ and the Father are equal in all aspects as per the definition of the “Trinity,” then knowing that the true God the Father is omniscient, meaning all-knowing (I John 3:20 NKJV) and Christ having to hear the truth coming from God creates a very difficult position that Trinitarians can not explain other than claim it to be a “wonderful mystery,” that is not so wonderful, but highly confusing. We must remember God is not the author of confusion (I Cor. 13:33 KJV).
If Christ is the second person of the so-called Trinity and is equal with the Father, then why does Christ need to hear the truth from God? What irony!
The words “from God” alone give a clear distinction and a separation in the clause that they are not one and the same. In fact, not only did Christ hear the truth from God, but God is also His (Christ’) God and Father (Jn. 20:17). Notice that it was Apostle John again who wrote this pronouncement of Jesus.
A FAKE JESUS
The true Jesus preached by the apostles is, beyond dispute, a man. He is neither God nor God-man, but man. This is based on the true gospel, not on “a different gospel.
Therefore, any person who preaches a Jesus who is God or God-man is a false preacher preaching a “different Jesus” or a fake Jesus.
Such preacher, according to the Apostle John, does not have the Spirit from God but from the enemy of Christ and should not be believed:
“My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere. This is how you will be able to know whether it is God’s Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God. But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already.”
(Reference: I John 4:1-3 TEV, Emphasis Mine)
IN CONCLUSION
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WE KINDLY EXTEND our visitors an invitation to explore the pristine, unadulterated teachings of Christ and His apostles as they were taught in the first-century Church Of Christ. Learn the importance of who the true God is and the simplicity that is in Christ because to know who the true God is means “eternal life” (Jn. 17:3).
To learn more visit the following link:
The Truth about God and Jesus Christ
SUPPORTERS OF THE BELIEF in the divinity of Christ, also known as the Christ-is-God or the God-man doctrine, assert that God exists as a trinity consisting of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although they are three in nature and considered distinct beings, proponents maintain that they form a single God. The concept of the Trinity lacks explicit biblical endorsement; thus, proponents often argue that it represents a profound mystery beyond human comprehension and should be accepted by faith alone.
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