This is a question that always seems to pop up around the celebrations of Christmas and Easter. Talking about Jesus becomes fashionable in the secular media as well especially around these times. These are the times when secular magazines like TIME and Newsweek and television networks like NBC, ABC and PBS will come out of the closet and openly promote the person of Jesus Christ with glossy cover stories and expensively produced documentaries. Even popular writers like Dan Brown and Tom Harpur have recently published best-selling books about Jesus. But just who is the Jesus Christ that they are promoting? Is He the living Lord of the universe, creator of heaven and earth, or is he just a normal human being like us who taught us to be nice to each other? This is the most important question that every person must answer because, as it has been said, “If you have the right Jesus Christ, you have the right Jesus Christ for all eternity. If you have the wrong Jesus Christ, you have the wrong Jesus Christ for all eternity.”

The First Time

People have been asking this question for centuries, but of course, we first read of this question being asked during Jesus’ ministry. We read in Matthew 21:10, “When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’ “ [NIV] Later on in Luke we see the Pharisees and teachers of the law asking, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy?” [Luke 5:21] and then even others began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” [Luke 7:49]. In John we read about Jews and a crowd asking Jesus Himself, “Who are you?” [John 8:25] and “Who is this ‘Son of Man’?” [John 12:34]. And let’s not forget Saul, who later became the apostle Paul when he met Jesus and asked, “Who are you, Lord?” [Acts 9:5].

Perhaps the most important person who ever asked this question was Jesus Himself. Remember when Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” [Matthew 16:13] and “But what about you?” He asked. “Who do you say I am?” [Matthew 16:15]?

Before we look at the answers to these first century questions in Scripture, let’s look at some of the answers that have been offered to us throughout history starting with the early Church.

The Early Church

There were those in Jesus’ day that thought He was John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the other prophets [Matthew 16:14] but there were also a number of other ideas about Jesus going around in the early church that we don’t read about in Scripture.

Docetism

There was a school of thought known as Docetism which is derived from the Greek ‘dokeo’ which means “to seem.” Docetism taught that Jesus did not really have a body of flesh and bones. The idea was that Jesus was a spirit only who entered a human body at some point and then left it at the crucifixion. This of course denies the virgin birth, the Incarnation and even the bodily resurrection of Jesus. This was probably one of the very first theological errors that appeared in the early church. This is probably why we read the warning of 1 John 4:2,3: “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come: and even now already it is in the world.” [KJV]

The Ebionites

The Ebionites regarded Jesus as the last and greatest of the prophets. Indeed He is a prophet, to which all the prophets pointed and by whose Spirit they spoke. But to limit Jesus to a prophetic role only is degrading and far from the whole truth. The Ebionites also regarded Jesus as the natural son of Joseph and Mary, but not as the eternal Son of God.

The Manichaeans

The Manichaeans taught that Christ was identical with the sun spirit, and the Holy Ghost has his seat in the ether. They taught that these two beings attract the light forces out of the material world, while the prince of darkness, and the spirits imprisoned in the stars, sought to keep them back. The Manichaean presentation of Christ is just like the docetics. By its view of body and matter, it excluded the possibility and idea of an incarnation of God the Son.

Mani’s [the movement’s founder] mission involved re-interpreting the teachings of Christ which he taught were first compiled and falsified by the apostles in the spirit of Judaism. Since Mani claimed to be the promised Paraclete [or helper that Jesus promised to send after His ascension], he had been entrusted to restore the truth concerning Christ.

The Gnostics

The most pervasive and popular conceptions of who Jesus was came from the various gnostics that abounded during the early church period. We get the word “gnostic” from the Greek word “gnosis,” which means “knowledge.” The Gnostics believed that they were privy to a secret knowledge about the divine, hence the name. There are far too many different gnostic views to name and list here [some only used a few gospels, some added their own gospels, some rejected all gospels altogether] but they all shared one teaching in common concerning Christ. According to gnostics, Jesus either existed only as a spirit or He didn’t exist at all. All Gnostics viewed the material world as an illusion from which their ’secret knowledge’ would set us free.

Do these ideas sound familiar? They should. These are all still popular ideas in our day. Before we look at those, let’s look at some more ideas which were introduced by men who thought they had discovered the ‘real’ Jesus during a time we refer to as ‘The Enlightenment.’

The “Enlightenment”

This was a period of time in our history that comes a little closer to our time. The ‘enlightment’ period began in the mid 1600s and progressed into the late 1800s and early 1900s. This was when science became viewed as the opposition to religion. We usually think of Darwin and his ‘Origin of Species’ when we think of this time period. However, it was not only scientists that stirred up the church at this time but there were also some very influential theologians and Pastors who were influenced by this movement as well.

H. S. Reimarus, 1694-1768

H. S. Reimarus was one such influential leader of the enlightenment movement. He claimed that Jesus was just a normal human being, born like everyone else, parented by Mary and Joseph. He was responsible for introducing the idea that Jesus’s divinity was added to the Scriptures by zealous followers and that it was Jesus’ disciples who actually made up the resurrection story themselves by stealing the body from the tomb and then claim that Christ rose from the dead.

David Friedrich Strauss, 1808-1874

David Friedrich Strauss was another theologian who contributed to this idea when he first published his book ‘Life of Jesus’ in 1835. He also promoted the idea that Jesus was just a man but went one step further to suggest that the gospels and the New Testament be read and interpreted ‘mythologically.’ This of course was compared to Homer’s ‘Iliad’ where he wrote about the real city of Troy but surrounded it in Greek mythology. This was introduced into the academic world to explain the supernatural events in the New Testament as mythology and consequently deny Jesus’s deity.

Bruno Bauer, 1809-1882

Bruno Bauer was yet another influential philosopher, historian and theologian in the latter part of the 19th century. He took these ideas even further by, not only mythologizing the supernatural events in the New Testament, but he even went so far as to teach that Jesus Himself was a myth and had never even existed at all as a man or a spirit!

So we see that men who considered themselves ‘enlightened’ by a new scientific age of reasoning, were not as original as they thought. Their ideas differed very little from ideas of the early church gnostics. Not suprprisingly, we see the same ideas being sold to us today by our contemporaries.

Today

There was also another movement that arose in the early and mid 19th century known as the ‘Restoration Movement’ which has given us many of the groups with different ideas of who Jesus is that we have today. These groups claim to have ‘restored’ the true church that has been lost for so many centuries which is why we call it ‘the Restoration Movement’. It’s interesting to see that the ideas of Jesus’ identity that they present to us are not really new at all but are indeed the same ideas that many in the early church held whenever they strayed from Scripture. Looking at a short list of who they say Jesus is will show us why those early church heresies sounded so familiar to us.

Adventists - teach that Jesus was a created being. He was considered to be Michael the Archangel before entering a human body as a spirit to become Jesus, then returning to heaven as a spirit angel after the crucifixion. [Note: Not all Adventists teach this today.]

Jehovah’s Witnesses - teach the same thing as Adventists. Jesus is not God but a lesser/created being.

Mormons - teach that Jesus also was a spirit being that entered into a naturally born human child. He had many siblings including Lucifer as his brother. As a human being he had to be obedient to the Father in order to progress to Godhood.

Christian Science - teaches that Jesus was just a man but that he possesed all the knowledge of Christian Science which says that all matter is an illusion and we are all really spirit beings trapped in an illusion of matter.

Then of course we have some of our more modern ideas. [1] We have Elizabeth Claire Prophet who founded The Church Universal and Triumphant who claimed to be a medium for Jesus who, according to her, became one of many ‘Ascended Masters’ after spending years in India learning from the Gurus there how to perform miracles and rise from the dead. We have Dan Brown who wrote the best-selling book The Da Vinci Code telling us that Jesus was not crucified but quietly married Mary Magdeline and moved to France where they had a daughter and their bloodline still lives today. We also have Tom Harpur who recently published The Pagan Christ [2] telling us that Jesus never even existed as a real person.

So with all these ideas about who Jesus is getting recycled and repackaged every few hundred years or so, we can see why Jesus first asked His disciples “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” [Matthew 16:13] and “Who do you say I am?” [Matthew 16:15].

Back To The Bible

Simon Peter answered Jesus’s question by replying, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” [Matthew 16:16 NAS]. So how did Jesus answer Peter? Did He say, “No Peter. I am only a messenger sent by God.” or, “No Peter. I am only one of many sons of God.” or, “No Peter. I am just a man like you who wants to teach you the way.”? No, Jesus didn’t answer Peter in any of these ways. He answered saying, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Jesus affirmed Simon Peter’s identification of who He was!

“Well,” the skeptic may answer, “Jesus only agreed that He was the ’son’ of God. That could still mean that He was a created being. God could call an angel His son or a naturally born child His son. So this verse doesn’t prove anything.”

The Apologetic Response

So how do we answer this objection? There are many ways [3] but for now let’s just look at the attributes of God. These are characteristics that belong only to Him and no one else, not even any beings that He created.

1.) God is Omniscient - This means He alone knows all things.

2.) God is Omnipresent - This means He can be everywhere and anywhere at any time.

3.) God is Omnipotent - This means God is all powerful and has authority over everything.

4.) God is Eternal - This means He has always been existent.

5.) God is Immutable - This means God never changes.

So how does the Jesus of the Bible measure up to this God of the Bible?

1.) Jesus is Omniscient - In John 16:30 the apostle John affirms, “Now we can see that you know all things.” [NIV]

2.) Jesus is Omnipresent - Jesus said in Matthew 28:20, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age,” and in Matthew 18:20, “Where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.” [NIV]

3.) Jesus is Omnipotent - “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” Jesus said in Matthew 28:18. [NIV]

4.) Jesus is Eternal - John 1:1 declares of Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” [NIV]

5.) Jesus is Immutable - Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” [NIV]

Remember Jesus Himself said, “For false Christs and false prophets will appear,” [Matthew 24:24]. Now which Jesus do you have? Do you have a Jesus that is someone different than the Jesus of the Bible? Or do you know the Jesus of the Bible who is very God as your personal Lord and Saviour?

Dear Heavenly Father,
I praise you and thank you for Who You are. I thank You that You have revealed Yourself to us through your Son Jesus Christ. I thank You that we can learn about Him in Your Word and that You are faithful to forgive us our sins if we only confess to You that we are sinners who have gone astray and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Lord, I pray for those who don’t know you. I pray for those who think You are someone other than Who You really are. Lord, I ask that if there is anyone reading this today that does not know You that You will speak to them today by Your Spirit and bring them to a saving knowledge of Your Son Jesus Christ, Lord of Lords and King of Kings. In His name I pray, Amen.
References and Recommended Reading:

http://www.tecmalta.org/tft.htm
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gnostics.html
http://www.exchangedlife.com/Sermons/topical/trinity/heresies1.shtml/
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/heretics.htm
http://www.letusreason.org/Onenes3.htm
http://www.sundayschoolcourses.com/histjesu/histcont.htm
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bauer/
http://homepages.which.net/~radical.faith/thought/reimarus.htm

[1] See Lorri MacGregor’s book, ‘Coping with the Cults’ for an alphebetical listing of dozens of modern cult groups and what they teach about Jesus.

[2] This review of Tom Harpur’s The Pagan Christ was written by Pastor Werner Peters
http://www.wernerpeters.com/pages/archives/000085.html

[3] One of the best books available for Christians and non-Christians alike that examine skeptics questions regarding the person of Jesus Christ is Lee Strobel’s ‘The Case For Christ.’