Is Jesus God?

and this is the authority that God had given them, if they did not offer the sacrifice, no forgiveness took place...they had a responsibility and the authority in that regard. You cant say that they did not have the authority to forgive sins when, without them, no forgiveness took place.God could have forgiven anyone he chose to, at any time, yet he had made the arrangement that forgivenss was to take place, only thru the priests. Why would he choose this method of forgiveness? Why would he only forgive if the priest was offering the sacrifice?? It was because the priest was given that authority...it was Gods arrangement.In the same way, God gave the Messiah this authority and just like the priest, forgivenss only takes place thru Jesus. Jesus obviously knew this, he understood his role better then any one else and therefore he could rightfully say that he had authority to forgive sins.This certainly doesnt make him God though, just as it did not make the priests God.And the apostles understood his role in this way also, John said sin was cleansed thru Jesus.
1John 1:7However, if we are walking in the light as he himself is in the light, we do have a sharing with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sinRevelation 1:5 5and from Jesus Christ, the Faithful Witness, The firstborn from the dead, and The Ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him that loves us and that loosed us from our sins by means of his own bloodThe sacrifice of Jesus is what makes forgiveness of sins possible, Hebrews bears this out also and shows that the sacrifice Jesus gave was to be the means of forgivenss for all mankind. And you have to remember that jesus said 'ALL authority has been given to me in heaven and upon earth"All authority. This includes the forgiveness of sins but it was something bestowed upon Jesus, he didnt always have that authority... if he was God, then he would have always had it, yet he said 'it has been given to him'

The grammar is not an issue as this construct is found in other passages. as the quote from above shows, the grammar is not an issue.another source agrees with the above Im happy to have a closer look at the verse in greek.Greek: πρὶν - ᾿Αβραὰμ ------- γενέσθαι ------- ---- ἐγὼ ------ εἰμίTrans: prin - A‧bra‧am′ -----ge‧ne′sthai ---------- e‧go′ ----- ei‧mi′Eng: before - Abraham ---- came into being ------- I -------- am.The Greek verb there used, eimi', is literally in the present tense, but because it is preceded by the aorist infinitive clause in referring to Abraham’s past, the Greek verb eimi′ must be viewed as a historical present.
This is possible in Greek. Here is another reference about the 'historical present' in greek grammar: Jesus was here referring to an existence from before Abraham and continuing down till he spoke which is in harmony with how greek can be constructed according to the above scholars.Its for this reason that numerous translators use a different rendering then the King James version

looking at the verse of hebrews in the greek interlinear it literally reads:
Heb 1:8 "And to the son, the throne of you, O God is, to the age of the age"
which is how RS renders it as does the KJ, NE, TEV, Dy, JB, NAB.
The NWT renders it But with reference to the Son: ‘God is your throne forever and ever. which is similar to the AT, Mo, TC, By...so the NWT is not alone in this rendering.The correct rendering must be in line with the context. So what is the context?
The preceding verses show that God is the one speaking, and the following verse uses the expression God, thy God, showing that the one addressed is not the Most High God but is a worshiper of that God.Hebrews 1:8 is a quote from Psalm 45:6, which was addressed to one of the kings of Israel. We can pretty much be sure that writer did not think that this human king was Almighty God. This is why the RS reads Your divine throne. and the NE says, Your throne is like God’s throne. and the JP says Thy throne given of God.So with that in mind, and in harmony with the fact that God is the throne, or Source and Upholder of Christ’s kingship, Daniel 7:13,14 and Luke 1:32 show that God confers such authority on him. Just as he did the king in Isreal who was said to sit on Gods throne, so too Jesus is sitting on Gods throne.
About this I have the following quote about this verse:

I agree its confusing as the whole book osillates between different characters who are speaking. One of the main problems with identifying them comes from the fact that the at some stage during the 2nd or 3rd century C.E. the scribes removed the Tetragrammaton (Gods personal name) from both the Septuagint and the Christian Greek Scriptures and replaced it with Lord and God.The NWT at Revelation 22.6 reads:
And he said to me: These words are faithful and true; yes, Jehovah the God of the inspired expressions of the prophets sent his angel forth to show his slaves the things that must shortly take place. 7And, look! I am coming quickly. Happy is anyone observing the words of the prophecy of this scroll.Because only God Almighty is called the 'alpha and omega' which is why the NWT has used the name of God in this verse. jesus has never been called by that term so it would be illogical to assume that it must be speaking about Jesus. The wording may be identical, but if you consider that Jesus will carry out Gods will, then this would explain it.
Gods will is for jesus to go into action against Gods enemies. If God sends Jesus for that purpose, then God can say that he is coming. It should be understood in that context because Jesus will only come at Gods direction.

its quite simple reallyJesus did not claim to be equal to God. He did not have the same knowledge as God nor did he have the same decision making power as God. Matt. 12:31,32, RS: Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven

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John 14:28, RS: [Jesus said:] If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.

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1 Cor. 11:3, RS: I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

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Mark 13:32, RS: Of that day or that hour no ones knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

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Matt. 20:20-23, RS: The mother of the sons of Zebedee ... said to him [Jesus], ‘Command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ But Jesus answered, ... ‘ to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’ The fullness of God can reside in all of us.The 'godhead' has been interpreted by some scholars to mean 'the divine nature' According to The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, the expression to thei'on is derived from the adjective theos, meaning ‘pertaining to God,’ ‘divine.’ So that phrase can be understood to refer to a person or to a quality....Gods qualities.Jesus imitated Gods personality perfectly and i beleive its in this way that the 'divine nature' dwelt in Jesus.
The divine nature is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, mildness, kindess etc...its all the good qualities attributed to God. Jesus displayed these qualities perfectly. We ourselves can work to display such qualities and have adopt the nature of God into ourselves.

You may need to reconsider this a bit more.the evidence is that in Isreals history, God instituted High Priests. Their role was to present the people before God so that they could have forgiveness of sins. The priest offered sacrifices on behalf of the people...if they people tried to offer sacrifices without a priest officiating, the sacrifice was rejected.Just as he instituted priests, he also instituted Jesus as a means of forgiveness of sin. In turn, Jesus gave that authority to forgive sins to his apostles.John 20:21 Just as the Father has sent me forth, I also am sending YOU. 22And after he said this he blew upon them and said to them: Receive holy spirit. 23If YOU forgive the sins of any persons, they stand forgiven to them; if YOU retain those of any persons, they stand retained.I really dont think you can use the fact that Jesus had authority to forgive sins to proclaim that he is God. But lets say you still want to stick to your view, think about this:If Jesus is God as you say, then he certainly would have the authority to forgive sins and being God he must also have the authority to give the apostles the same authority..... but now you have a problem.... If the apostles have authority to forgive sins, then perhaps they are also God?I think that puts this idea in a bit of a quandry.

Genesis 1:26 shows that God spoke to someone when he said
"Let US make man in OUR image and in OUR likeness" then we have proverbs which speaks about 'someone' who was the first of God creations who dwelt with God and became a co-worker with him in the creationProverbs 8:22-31
"Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago. ... Before the mountains themselves had been settled down, ahead of the hills, I was brought forth as with labor pains ... When he prepared the heavens I was there; ... then I came to be beside him as a master worker, and I came to be the one he was specially fond of day by day, I being glad before him all the time, ... and the things I was fond of were with the sons of men.This proverb certainly applies to Jesus. This is why the apostles said of Jesus that He is before all other things and by means of him all other things were made to exist.Colossians 1:17; Revelation 3:14.What you really need to explain is why the bible has both the God Jehovah and the Son Jesus.Jesus was never called Jehovah and Jehovah is never called Jesus. They are distinct characters. Edited by Peg, : No reason given.

This passage cannot be speaking about divine wisdom or wisdom in the abstract for the reason that the wisdom being described was produced, or created, as the beginning of Jehovah’s way. Jehovah God has always existed and has always been wise so his wisdom had no beginning; it was neither created nor produced. It was not brought forth as with labor pains. Besides, this wisdom is said to speak, act and even have feelings so it must be representing a person.

never do we see a statement that says 'God was produced' or 'God was created'He is eternal and had no beginningbut in this proverb, the one being spoken of is said to have a beginning. We can go over and over this point, but no matter how you look at it, this person had a beginning, this person 'came to be beside God as a master worker'You know God had no beginning, so nor did his wisdom....but this person did so he is not God but somone else. the problem here is that to be 'appointed' shows a beginning. Eternity does not have a beginning, it cannot be appointed, it just is.
Yet this person is also 'appointed' and therefore could not have existed prior to that appointment. IOW, not eternal like God is. God was never appointed becaues he IS eternal, but this person was appointed as the beginning of Gods ways.So we understand it to be speaking about the very first creation of God before the universe, before the earth, before all other angelic creatures. Jesus was the beginning of Gods creations. Jesus became the master worker who, thru Gods direction and power, brought all other things into existence...inluding mankind which whom the proverb says 'The things I was fond of was the sons of men'....and hence why Jesus was the perfect choice to send to earth to redeem mankind from their fallen condition. Edited by Peg, : No reason given.

Hi EMA im just curious what your bible reads in this verse
the verse in my bible most certainly does not have Paul saying Jesus is Equal with God, rather he says that Jesus did not consider himself to be equal to God.

a literal return of Jesus makes absolutely no sense in terms of who Jesus is and what he will soon be doing.the prophet daniel spoke of the Messiah/Jesus as a powerful spirit who will take action against Gods enemies. How could he possibly do that from a small scrap of land anywhere on this earth.How will standing on a tiny dot in the sand amount to him destroying Satan the Devil and all the worlds governments? No, the action he will soon take cannot possibly be achieved by stationing himself in Jerusalem in the flesh...he will need much more then physical strength to accomplish what is to come.

proverbs shows that there are two beings being spoken of...the one speaking and the one who is being spoken about..." When HE prepared the earth, I was there"27When HE prepared the heavens I was there; when HE decreed a circle upon the face of the watery deep, 28when he made firm the cloud masses above, when he caused the fountains of the watery deep to be strong, 29when he set for the sea his decree that the waters themselves should not pass beyond his order, when he decreed the foundations of the earth, 30then I came to be beside him as a master worker,The one speaking is not speaking about himself alone....who is the other one he mentions?

so what you are saying is that i should start by assuming that Jesus IS God and then i will find truth?and how is that NOT circular reasoning?Have you ever wondered why the tetragrammaton existed at all?

Ok,so why are you not applying this conclusion to the account where Jesus says to the paralytic man "your sins are forgiven"If "the power of proclaiming this forgiveness" could be entrusted to the disciples, why is it not possible that God gave the same power of proclaiming forgiveness to the Messiah?besides this, forgiveness was foretold to come thru the Messiah...therefore anyone who put faith in the Messiah would have a means to forgiveness of their sins,so if the Messiah is the means of forgiveness, why could he not also have 'authority' to forgive as Jesus stated?

what is Gods form?Im sure you would agree that his form is in 'spirit'. So Jesus was also in Gods form, a spirit, before he came to earth. The angels also exist in Gods form...they are also spirits. This does not mean he was God himself, only that he existed in the same 'form' as God....just as you exist in the same 'form' as every other human. the Greek word translated in my bible as 'seizure' is har‧pag‧mon′
and the The Expositor’s Greek Testament says: So, No. Jesus did not 'possess' the form of God in the sense that you are thinking. This word carries a negative connotation to it...it means to take something illegally. Paul is saying that Jesus did not try to make himself 'equal' to God. Jesus did not even consider that he was equal to God. And this is in harmony with his own words found at John 14:28 where he said The Father is greater than I. even your' own translation does not say that he is God in this passage.
All it says is that Jesus did not consider himself equal to God. 5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be graspedIf Jesus was God then he was also equal to God, yet Paul is saying that Jesus did not consider himself equal to God. Thats a terrible contradiction to make if Jesus was infact equal to God. this verse was mentioned earlier, but it doesnt imply that Jesus is God himself. It implies that Jesus view is that God alone is the standard for goodness. Jesus did not view himself as the one who set that standard, If Jesus was God, then his comment of reproof would make no sense at all. Mark 10:17 Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit everlasting life? Jesus said to him: Why do you call me good? Nobody is good, except one, God.Jesus never objected to being identified as the leader or the master or teacher, but he did object when someone addressed him with titles. He really showed his view of the matter by indicating that only God was deserving of such title....this puts a damper on the trinity teaching because if only God should be called good, what about the holy spirit and the son who are supposed to all be one and the same??? there are many examples of others being identified as being good and it didnt mean that they were God.cornenlius the roman army officer was called good
Acts 11:24 "for he was a good man and full of holy spirit and of faith"in one of Jesus parables, he calls the slave good
Mathew 25:21 "Well done, good and faithful slave! You were faithful over a few things."Jesus also said that among mankind there are good people
Matthew 5:45 "for he makes his sun shine upon the good and upon the wicked"Joseph of Aramathea was called a good man
Luke 23:50 "And, look! a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man..."So there are plenty of people who are described as being good, however, none of these scriptures are giving them the 'title' of Good. This is what the rich young ruler did with Jesus, he gave him a title rather then accept the title, which he would have if he was God, he rejected such a title because as he said "none is Good but God"Only God can carry the title of Good because he sets the standard for goodness, no one else sets that standard.