Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) That Arise From the New Testament

The New Testament did not exist during the life of Jesus or his followers. Scholars propose that Galatians and James were the first books written in 49 A.D. about sixteen years after the ascension of Jesus with Revelation not being written until the late 80’s or early 90’s A.D. The entire New Testament canon[1] was not finalized until 397 during the Council of Carthage. The apostles and disciples had their memory of the teachings of Jesus, their collected teachings, and the letters/epistles they wrote. The Council of Nicaea debated the question of the deity of Jesus in 325 A.D. (to be discussed later). The controversies presented in this book did not exist in their day. When Jesus stepped onto the scene, his declarations caused an uproar among the Pharisees and Sanhedrin. The Jewish leaders did not attack him because he disputed the doctrine of the Trinity, they saw him as a threat to the Jewish nation, with the Roman Empire, and being blasphemous against their Laws by declaring himself equal to God. They accused him of being demon possessed before he proclaimed “…before Abraham was, I AM” and they picked up rocks to stone him after he said it (John 8:58-59).

If the prophecy of the Messiah had never been fulfilled, Jesus would never have been born in Bethlehem, the angel of Yehovah’ would never have announced “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Yehovah’, Luke 2:11-12, NIV), and there would be no discussion about plurality in the godhead, Hebrew words, or question Who is the “US.” There would be no reason or cause to question God’s monotheism before Jesus. Jesus’ entrance into the world raised one question after another.

It is unknown, except for Paul, and John after his prophetic Revelation of Jesus, that Jesus’ disciples, apostles, or the hierarchy of the Jewish religious society knew that God Almighty was walking among them disguised in Jesus’ shroud of flesh. It is hard to believe that John would not have understood who Jesus was considering what he declared in his Gospel: “It is the father living in me doing the works” (14:10) and “I will not leave you as orphans (NIV), or comfortless (KJV), I will come to you” (John 14:16-18). But if it seems difficult to accept that John did not grasp who Jesus was, how are we to understand why the majority of believers do not understand. I cannot prove it and I am not going to try but I believe scripture supports at least my suspicion that most of Jesus’ followers were unaware they were in the midst of their Creator.

When Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of living god” (Matthew 16:15-16, NIV). He did not respond, you are Immanuel, God with us, or you are Yehovah’ God, the Everlasting Father. The word Christ is the Greek word Christos, (Strongs 5547 NT), anointed. The term for Messiah in Hebrew is “Mashiach,” anointed.

“Anglicization of the Hebrew, “mashiach” (anointed). A man who will be chosen by G-d to put an end to all evil in the world, rebuild the Temple, bring the exiles back to Israel and usher in the world to come. It is better to use the Hebrew term “mashiach” when speaking of the Jewish messiah, because the Jewish concept is very different from the Christian one.” [2]

The Jewish website above tells us that the Messiah would be “a man chosen by God,” almost the exact definition of the word delegate: a person who is chosen or elected to vote or act for others.[3] Peter and the other disciples were looking for a man chosen by God to remove the world of evil and resolve the political problems of the nation of Israel. Peter was not expecting God Himself as a man. He was expecting a rescuer. Jesus confirms this in John 14:9 when he asked Philip, “Don’t you know me Philip…?” Thomas was accurate in his worship of Jesus after he placed his fingers in his hands and hand in his side, then said “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). The word Lord in that verse is kúriós (Strong’s NT:2962, koo’-ree-os) and would be more accurately translated Yehovah’. We cannot be sure what Thomas understood at that point or what he was implying. We can be sure that they still did not understand what Jesus’ objective on earth was just before he ascended into heaven since they asked: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6, NIV). They were still looking for an economic, political, and/or military rescue for the people and nation.

They never had reason to ask Jesus, Jesus, you say things that lead us to understand that you are claiming to be God. How can that be? We have been taught all our lives that there is but one God. If YHWH is God, how can you be God also? And if you are God, how can we believe there is only one God? Those questions had to be asked after the writers of the New Testament completed their individual assignments and after those gospels and epistles were brought together. When those questions were finally asked, the church fathers were unsuccessful to answer based on, and compatible with, the most basic premise of scripture—the absolute solitary nature of God. They created a doctrine based on their beliefs instead of shaping their doctrine according to scripture.

I have managed the website whoisjesus.com since 1989. There was a time, long since gone, when the site stimulated challenging questions from argumentative Trinitarians and in some cases, new believers searching for answers. Much of this book has been focused on answering some of those standard questions, e.g. Who is the US? Why is Deuteronomy 6:4 so important and what does it mean? There was a core group of repeat questions asked. Numerous New Testament verses were discussed in the chapter Identifying the Counterfeit as supports to the understanding that God was manifest in the flesh of Jesus that may have already answered some of those questions but there are several New Testament texts that can be difficult to understand. I believe this chapter is important to answer some of those Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).  I cannot answer every possible question, but I will try to answer several in these next sections.

[1] Canon refers to books of the Bible that were deemed inspired by God.

[2] https://www.jewfaq.org/mashiach.htm: Messiah

[3] Merriam-Websters’s Unabridged online Dictionary.