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god It is a matter of universal orthodoxy that Jesus is the one god. The story is that the Jews killed Jesus because he claimed to be the one god. Jesus never taught anything of the sort. Even the synoptic gospels never portray their hero, Jesus, as more than the most divine man who ever lived. But Paul’s epistles and the John’s gospel forget who Jesus was as a rabbi and remember him instead as an eternal spirit in mortal form. In the 100s, the apologists developed this idea of the logos against those who considered Jesus to have been born a normal mortal and to have become divine by adoption. The eternal-spirit party won out. Christians start building in ever more specific and grandiose statements about Jesus into their baptismal statements, to which one had to swear allegiance before one could be baptized, and eventually Jesus was understood to be not just a god but the one god. Of course, since the new testament doesn’t support this view, it led to some confusion and no end of heresy and schism. That’s where emperor Constantine’s Nicene creed of 325 comes in, defining Jesus to be of the same substance as god, not just a similar substance. The creed was meant to unify the church, but it led to repeated controversy and a split between Roman and Gothic Christianity that lasted hundreds of years.
From Christ to God Historically, Christians regard Jesus as god because they worshiped him rather than the other way around. By the 100s, Christians were worshiping Jesus as a god, but even then apologist Justin Martyr was careful to justify worship of him as the logos, second only to the one god, rather than as the one god in the fullest sense. By the 300s, however, Athanasius promoted the concept that Jesus was fully god partly on the evidence that Christians had been worshiping him for centuries. Perhaps here we have the common believers leading the way and the great thinkers following along behind. The Nicene declaration that Jesus was fully god may have resulted more from the relentless piety of unlettered worshipers than from the intellectual noodling of theologians. The doctrine that Jesus is fully God arose from synthesis of two powerful, opposing forces: spiritual exaggeration and God’s unity. On one hand, the one thing that early Christians had that no one else had was Jesus. Perhaps thanks to original sin, people tend to exaggerate the virtues of their own holy men, just like we exaggerate the virtues of our own cultures, ethnic groups, political parties, etc. Over the hundred years or so during which the new testament books were written, the divine son of god became much more than the savior and law-giver. Christ was seen as the very means of and reason for creation itself. The more the early Christians stressed Jesus’ divinity, the more righteous and saintly his followers would be, the more advantaged they would be relative to those who didn’t have Jesus. The competition was tough, after all. There were plenty of pious, morally upstanding, compassionate Jews and pagans out there. Being pious, morally upstanding, and compassionate couldn’t be the measure of one’s spiritual superiority. It had to be the Christians’ unique quality, faith in Jesus, that put them ahead. On the other hand, Jewish tradition firmly held that the LORD is one. Gnostics talked about various emanations of the godhead, each emanation with various characteristics or roles. This popular idea would influence Jewish and Christian thought to the point of heresy and schism, so the early Christians really didn’t want to talk about Christ as a divine manifestation. The rationalist pagans in fact agreed that god was one. The early Christians were caught in a bind. They wanted Jesus to be the alpha and the omega, but both their more orthodox Jewish and more orthodox pagan audiences did not want to accept a “logos” or any other creator than God alone. Eventually, Christians would settle the conflict between worshiping Christ and worshiping god by ruling that Christ was god.
Timeline for Jesus as God It took a while for Christians to get around to the idea that Jesus was God. c 30. Jesus leads a ministry as a charismatic, autonomous prophet and, at least loosely, as a son of God. After Jesus’ crucifixion, the disciples experience the risen Jesus and proclaim him to be God’s anointed. c 50 to 60. Paul describes Jesus as an eternal spirit who had shed his divinity (kenosis) in order to take mortal form and obey God’s plan for humanity’s salvation. Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). c 65 to 90. Synoptic gospels describe Jesus as the anointed, the son of God, and the apocalyptic son of man. c 69 to 95. The epistle of Hebrews comes on strong, with Christ as the one by whom and for whom the universe was created, and who reflects the glory of God. c 90 to 100. The beloved disciple’s gospel depicts Jesus as the divine word incarnate, through whom the universe was created (see logos). The opening hymn defines Jesus as “theos,” a god who was with “the” God. c 110. Pliny the Younger reports that Christians in his province sing hymns to Christ as to a god. 2nd century. Those who see Jesus as a man united with the divine word (logos) win out decisively over those who see Jesus as the adopted son of God. 4th century. By this time, the idea that Jesus is the logos has come to imply that he is in some way God, and when an Alexandrian scholar tries to define Jesus as less that God he sets off a controversy. Emperors want their religions to establish unity, not discord, and the controversy leads to the first universal church councils, under imperial Roman authority. These councils declare Jesus to be fully God in two versions of the Nicene creed.
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contents table of contents you're already looking at it introduction for the inquisitive reader biographical overview who he was and wasn't
afterlife not Jesus' concern animal sacrifice bloodless religion apocalypse did Jesus preach hellfire? baptism sin wash for Jesus and others beatitudes Jesus' words and others' words beloved disciple witness for the un-gospel bible scripture old and new bishop the unjesus body focus on the physical Buddha Jesus' close kin charity key Christian virtue and legacy of Jesus The Da Vinci Code secret (and false) messages divorce women's status dreams convenient literary device Elijah Jewish prophet with his own second coming equality ancient source of modern egalitarianism exorcist Jesus and demons failure reinterpreting Jesus as a failure faith from trust to blind belief father Jesus on titles of honor Francis of Assisi the most Christlike Christian Gandhi the 20th century's most Christly holy man Galilee Jesus' inauspicious homeland gentiles Jesus' inadvertent audience god how Jesus became god golden rule key to Jesus' success gospels competing accounts heaven from sky to spiritual home hell revenge fantasy humanism Jesus' legacy inerrant Christian treatment of scripture Thomas Jefferson ethics of Jesus Jewish guilt Christian libel John's gospel the un-gospel John the baptist, see John the washer John the washer Jesus' apocalyptic mentor Judaism libeled religion of Jesus kingdom of god what Jesus promised Lao Tzu poet of the cosmic way logos jesus as the word of god C. S. Lewis famous, flawed trilemma little drummer boy Luke beats Matthew logos Jesus as the divine word LORD Yahweh transitioning to the one god of all Luke's gospel the all-around best gospel Mark's gospel the gospel that lost its point Mary of Magdala women, visions, and sex massacre of the innocents bloodshed starts early Matthew's gospel best gospel for church reading Mormon, see Joseph Smith Moses Jewish lawgiver Muhammad a prophet who got it right mystery Orpheus and transubstantiation oppression origin of Jesus' compassion The Passion of the Christ Luke as buzzkill Paul revealer of the revealer private and public public Jesus and secret Christ relativism the secret power of the golden rule sacrifice Jesus' death and Christian sacrament Albert Schweitzer Jesus as a failure sheol dark pit of death show Jesus' deeds as put-ons slavery abolished by Jesus' efforts Joseph Smith flesh-and-blood Jesus Socrates secular Jesus son of god on close terms with the man upstairs soul, see body synoptics three gospels that agree temple center of Jewish religion trinity unifying and divisive doctrinre vision, see dreams Yahweh, see LORD Zoroaster Persian dualistic holy man
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