The Person Of Jesus Christ Flashcards
Did Jesus think he was divine?
In Luke 2, Jesus is lost in the temple as a child and when he is found, he says to his parents ‘Didn’t you know I had to be in my fathers house?’ The temple is God’s house, so Jesus is suggesting God is his father
Jesus did not think he was divine?
We cannot use the Gospel evidence to conclude that Jesus thought he was divine, the stories are that of a radical preacher and human being
The Old Testament does not suggest the Messiah would be divine so why should Jesus think that of himself
Miracles to support Jesus as divine.
4 types of miracles:
Healing of the sick
Exorcism
Nature miracles
Raising from the dead
Curing the blind with mud.
The earliest records (Mark) written 35 years after his death could they of been embellished
The resurrection to support Jesus as divine.
The most Christian thinkers belief in the literal truth of the resurrection, is an absolute requirement for Christian faith
To resurrect is impossible, and therefore a higher form of divine intervention is necessary
Jesus as a teacher of wisdom.
Jesus was known as a Rabbi - a Jewish teacher
1.Jesus taught repentance and forgiveness - humans must forgive as God does. Must pray daily for forgiveness (Matthew 6:12)
- Jesus taught inner purity and moral motivation. Thinking about adulterous is as bad as committing it (Matthew 5:27-30). God will judge us on our actions (sheep and the goats Matthew 25)
Jesus was only a teacher of wisdom
Some theologians reject all gospel stories that imply a supernatural element as it could be added after his time, once removed we’re left with Jesus as a teacher
Miracles may be rejected as can the resurrection, leaving Jesus as a teacher of wisdom
All Jesus did was reform Judaism through challenging the wats of the religious leaders at the time
Jesus was not only a teacher of wisdom
Jesus authority came from far more than his teaching. Shouldn’t be categorised into one box
Wrong to call him a teacher of wisdom he taught many different things in different ways more than just a teacher
Wrong to say he is a teacher because as the Son Of God it loses sight of his function to save the world
Jesus doing divine things
“My fathers house has many rooms”
Mark 6:47-52 Jesus Walking on water
John 9:1-41Curing the blind
Jesus as a teacher over divine
Dismiss mythical things
Deny them and he is left as a teacher
Problems with Jesus as a teacher
1 of many teachers of wisdom
Hick - gifts to the world
No reason to chose Christianity
Jesus as a liberator
Jesus as a Zealot (freedom fighter)
Challenged social and economic structures
Gustavo Gutierrez, Jesus was not limited to a purely spiritual plane, he faced many problems we face today
Gospel evidence of Jesus as a teacher
‘The last shall be first and the first shall be last’
Evaluating Jesus as a liberator
If Jesus was a revolutionary leader, why were his disciples not arrested alongside him.
John Hick evaluating the divine
Metaphor for hope over despair, rather than an actual event
