Debate about what is contained within the Word of God exists due to a rebellious spirit. Not due to being smart, intellectual curiosity, or doing what people do. Yes, people do rebel. People do doubt. People do like to argue and imagine what they know is true no matter the source or how erroneous it may be. No, debate stems from an agitation within the spirit. A rebellious nature. A sinful nature. Satan entered into a form of debate with Eve and Adam in the Garden regarding would you die if you disobeyed God and ate of the fruit God instructed not to? No, surely you won’t die the devil in his cunning entered into a debate with Adam and Eve. One which man and woman lost. And we now have the corrupted, perverse, and fallen world we have. Destroying perfection created by God [consisting of God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit].

We think we’re so smart, going to get so much smarter in our debating. And all it does is add to the lies and confusion. Because of the starting place, almost all enter into any debate. Their human nature and what they have been conditioned to believe not necessarily what is truthful, factual, historical and actual.

They go on their own “smarts” rather than humbling, submitting, bowing to, and placing all their trust in the inerrant Word of God to guide them along every step, every place, every disparaging, confusing, how can it be!? step along the way without their turning to, trusting, believing, and coming to know the truth through the Word of God.

And it will take a humble and submissive heart and spirit to permit the Holy Spirit to do things within an individual no individual could achieve themselves. Not even if they attended and graduated from every top university, knew by heart the contents of every book ever written [other than the Word of God], and were considered the most knowledgeable person on earth. It’s all for naught if that person hasn’t turned to God and asked for spiritual wisdom, spiritual understanding, and for a heart perceptive, a mind perceptive, a spirit perceptive to God’s truth [remember — God consists of the Father, Jesus Christ the Lord, and the Holy Spirit]. Can anyone fully understand this? No. Can anyone fully understand how Jesus could be God and not a created being, eternal, and have a divine nature yet also come to earth in the flesh and have a spotless human nature? That experienced temptation, and every feeling and emotion of a human being? No, no one can understand that fully. It’s a mystery. Everything doesn’t need to be fully explained in order to live and accept and believe. Most of the daily acts and existence of every person on earth consists of myriad acts where that person doesn’t fully know, can’t explain, has no clue as to the how and why of the what — yet they get up daily, go through their day existing in that which almost everything they confront and deal with is a mystery that they cannot ever fully know the how and why of.

Think about this. How much does anyone truly know about anything? Even the inventors, even the greatest minds, even the scientists, the doctors, the philosophers only knew a drop in the bucket compared to what can be known, what exists, how, what, why? Most believe what they are told without ever really knowing. Think about this. We’re taught about gravity, the THEORY of evolution which most then automatically file away as fact while it’s a THEORY that has never been proved and never will be. The overwhelming majority believe in extraterrestrial life. Although there is no proof and never has been! But they believe in that which does not exist and has never had a shred of evidence of existing. But they believe!

Yet when it comes to what is contained in the Holy Bible?

If a person would take the time to read what is within the Word of God, actually read the Bible, actually STUDY the Bible, actually pray and ask for spiritual discernment and wisdom regarding what is in the Bible those folks would come to surely know, without any doubt, that Jesus is fully God and is NOT a created being, existed always. Always. And always will. Jesus is NOT a created being. He did not come into existence in Bethlehem as a baby.

Jesus is fully God and was also fully man for the time He spent here on earth in the flesh. Both a divine nature and a human nature, a human nature that was spotless, blameless, sinless, holy, holy, holy!

If a person would bother to pick up a Bible. Read. And believe what it is they read they would no doubt, would not ask if Jesus is a created being, if Jesus was merely a man, if, if, if…if only people would bother to read, study and believe what is within the Word of God!

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:3 — English Standard Version

Jesus, in whatever form He has in the spiritual realm of heaven CREATED the heavens and the earth, and all that is known from BEFORE anything was created. Yes, Jesus, along with God the Father, along with the Holy Spirit created all that is known. But God, no part of God is a created being or personage.

who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

2 Timothy 1:9 — English Standard Version

Christ Jesus BEFORE THE AGES BEGAN.

Do you believe? Do you have faith? Do you read, study and ask for spiritual wisdom for God’s Word?

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

John 17:5 — English Standard Version

“that I had with you before the world existed.”

How’s that happen to a baby born in Bethlehem about 2,000 years ago?

Do you believe? Do you have faith? Do you read, study and ask for spiritual wisdom for God’s Word?

Here’s a few more to help out;

John 17:5

John 3:136:3338628:2316:28). Christ even said that He existed prior to Abraham’s birth (John 8:58–59) even though Abraham’s birth preceded Jesus’ own birth by many centuries.

Several texts present Jesus as pre-existing with His Father (Romans 8:31 John 1:2Galatians 4:4). Several passages even identify Jesus as the Creator (John 1:2–3Colossians 1:16–17Hebrews 1:2).

Yes, Jesus came to earth.

He also has existed throughout eternity. Timeless. I understand that’s difficult for a human mind to understand. But it’s how it is. It’s the truth. It’s the facts. The Bible is inerrant. Infallible. The Bible is the Word of God. Not mere writings by some men. It is the WORD of God! God does not lie, exaggerate, distort, fabricate or deal in propaganda. God [the Father, Jesus the Lord, and the Holy Spirit] have no sin or evil within Them. Ever.

Yes, Jesus came to earth. To learn why go to the Word of God.

Fully God, fully human. Two distinct natures. The only person ever on earth like this.

Jesus was not just a good man, a teacher, a prophet. Jesus IS a part of the Godhead, the Triune God.

Jesus created all that is known. Everything. Along with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

No debate necessary. Oh, anyone can question, surely, but if you want an answer to those questions? Go to God. Go to the source for every answer to every possible question ever. Go to God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit — and the Word of God!

 

Ken Pullen

Friday, December 31st, 2021

ACP — A Crooked Path

 

Many people believe Jesus came to earth but are less sure about why

 

24 December 2021

By Julian Mann

Reprinted from Christian Today [in the U.K.]

 

A majority of Americans believe Jesus was born in Bethlehem and that he is the Son of God, according to a new survey from an evangelical research firm.

Nashville-based Lifeway Research conducted the “Bethlehem and Beyond: Who is Jesus?” survey of 1,005 Americans in September 2021. The respondents were quota-balanced to reflect the population.

Asked if they believed Jesus was born in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago, more than two thirds (72 per cent) of respondents said they did.

Asked if they believed Jesus is the Son of God the Father, four fifths (80 per cent) said yes.

But fewer than half (41 per cent) said they believed the Son of God existed before Jesus was born at Bethlehem.

Lifeway’s director Scott McConnell commented: “Most Americans consider Jesus’ birth a historical fact. It can be easy to only evaluate Jesus like you would any other historical figure – thinking about when He lived and what He did.

“However, the Bible also describes Jesus in a way that one must evaluate who you believe He was. Most Americans believe His origin was from God the Father, but half as many believe He existed before His birth.”

Respondents were also tested for their biblical knowledge on why Jesus came to earth. They were presented with seven mission statements and asked whether these were recorded in the Bible. Four of them are in the Bible and three are contradicted by it.

The results revealed “Christmas confusion”, according to Lifeway.

Just over half (51 per cent) said the recorded statement that Jesus came to “give his life for many” (Mark 10:45) was in the Bible.

Less than a third (31 per cent) said the statement that Jesus came to “give abundant life” (John 10:10) was in the Bible. The same percentage said the statement that he came to “testify to the truth” (John 18:37) was biblical.

Only nine per cent said Jesus’ mission statement as recorded in Matthew 10:34 that he came to bring division, not peace to the earth, was in the Bible.

But fewer than 10 per cent of respondents said the unrecorded statements that Jesus came to “be served”, to “condemn sinners” and to “abolish the Old Testament Law and Prophets” were in the Bible.

Nearly a fifth (17 per cent) were uncertain that any of the statements were biblical.

Scott McConnell said: “Despite widespread belief that Jesus really came to earth as a baby, there is far less familiarity with why Jesus said He came.

“However, the majority of Americans believe Jesus came to give His life for many, which is reflected in the angel’s words to Joseph in Matthew 1:21, ‘She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins’.”