Person of Jesus AO2 and Essay Plans Flashcards
1
Q
Jesus was the Son of God
A
- Matthew 3-Jesus’ Baptism ‘this is my beloved Son with whom I am pleased’.
- Jesus is God incarnate ‘I and the Father are one’ (John 10:30)
- Miracles Jesus performs are indicative of his divinity:water to wine, feeding of the 5000.
- His resurrection defied the most defining component of human existence.
2
Q
Jesus was not the Son of God
A
- The statement that ‘Jesus was the Son of God’ is irrelevant to atheists
- Arian school of thought in the 4th century argue that Jesus was ‘homiousious’ of ‘similar substance’ rather than the same substance of God the Father- Jesus is therefore like God the Father and connected to him, but he is not the same.
- COUNTER ARGUMENT TO MIRACLES- could argue that God was working through Jesus, just as he performed miracles through the prophets in the Old Testament e.g. Moses and the parting of the Red Sea.
- SECOND COUNTER ARGUMENT TO MIRACLES- According to Hume we cannot prove that miracles exist. AJ Ayer Verification Principle
- one might be skeptical about the legitimacy of other miracles on
- Could Jesus have ulterior motives for claiming to be God- politically motivating, overthrowing the pharisees and the saducess.
3
Q
Discussions about Jesus are pointless if one does not accept his divinity
A
- Jesus is a good role model even if he is not divine
- CS lewis calling Jesus a great moral teacher is patronising nonsense.
- why would you trust the moral teachings/judgement of someone who you believe to be deluded in their claim of divinity.
- The whole of the NT is based around the belief that Jesus is divine. Miracles described in the NT point towards Jesus’ divinity, however, Hume argues that we should not believed in these miracles- he argues that there is no evidence of miracles today therefore we should trust miracles that happened 2000 years ago.
4
Q
Discussions about Jesus are not pointless if one does not accept his divinity.
A
- Even if one does not believe that Jesus is divine, he can still be acknowledged as a good teacher of morality/role model. John Hick states that teachers of wisdom are ‘gifts to the world’
- Nietzsche acknowledges Jesus as a teacher of wisdom.
- Wittgenstein argued that Jesus was the ‘living word’- he was the embodiment of external moral and inner spiritual life.
- There is evidence that Jesus was a moral teacher in scripture:
- Jesis’ parables e.g. the Prodigal Son
- The sermon on the mount- Matthew 5
- Jesus’ response to Pharisees who were overly zealous in observing Jewish law
- Some argue that Jesus’ teachings were politically motivated and called to change social structures at the time- was Jesus a Zealot?
5
Q
Jesus was a political liberator
against
A
- social revolutionary who’s message crossed the boundaries at the time- actions of Christ demonstrate his message was revolutionary and sought to revolutionise people’s relationship people’s relationship with God through difficult political message, e.g. difficult political message, e.g. Good samaritan.
- Message carried a political and spiritual message- one which cannot be separated from his role as the incarnation
- liberation Jesus sought for human beings was from slavery of sin and liberation from evil- political liberation needed to challenge ruling.
- “My kingdom is not this world”
- rejected OT view of warrior kin, instead carrying out role as servant.
- although Jesus’ disciples carried swords, he stopped them from using them at the Garden of Gethsemane.
6
Q
Jesus was a political liberator
For
A
- -SJF brandon: Jesus was a politically driven freedom fighter
- much of Jesus’ teaching was anti-establishment- romans, pharisees, sadducees
- Reza Aslan: Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem and maximum political impact
- nature of his divinity can be questioned more so than his political liberation.
- Camillo Torres Restrepo: Jesus’ actions was that of a freedom fighter “if Jesus were alive today he would be a guerrilla”
- disciples carried weapons.
