#3. Jesus is not God, but only a man, God’s shaliah, or agent. ERROR.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [...]
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 8:58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” [Compare Ex. 3:14, Ps. 90:2]
59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
John 20:28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!”
Acts 20:28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
Titus 2:13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
2Pet. 1:1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
Here's how the ECF's understood Scripture:
1Clem. 16:2 The scepter of the majesty of God, even our Lord Jesus Christ, came not in the pomp of arrogance or of pride, though He might have done so, but in lowliness of mind, according as the Holy Spirit spake concerning Him. (Clement of Rome)
2Clem. 1:1 Brethren, we ought so to think of
Jesus Christ, as of God, as of the Judge of quick and dead. (Clement of Rome)
Eph. 1:0 Ignatius, also called Theophorus, sends heartiest good wishes for unalloyed joy in
Jesus Christ to the Church at Ephesus in Asia; a church deserving of felicitation, blessed, as she is, with greatness through the fullness of
God the Father; predestined, before time was, to be—to her abiding and unchanging glory—forever united and chosen, through real suffering, by the will of the Father and
Jesus Christ our God. (Ignatius)
Eph. 17:2 Why do we not all become wise, having received knowledge of
God, that is, Jesus Christ! Why do we perish in folly, failing to appreciate the gift which the Lord has sent us in truth! (Ignatius)
Eph. 18:2 The fact is,
our God Jesus Christ was conceived by Mary according to
God’s dispensation of the seed of David, it is true, but also of the Holy Spirit. He was born and was baptized, that by His Passion He might consecrate the water. (Ignatius)
Eph. 19:3 This was the reason why every form of magic began to be destroyed, every malignant spell to be broken, ignorance to be dethroned, an ancient empire to be overthrown—
God was making His appearance in human form to mold the newness of eternal life! Then at length was ushered in what God had prepared in His counsels; then all the world was in an upheaval because the destruction of death was being prosecuted. (Ignatius)
Tral. 7:1 So, then, beware of such! And you will do so if you are not puffed up and cling inseparably
to God Jesus Christ, to the bishop, and to the precepts of the Apostles. (Ignatius)
Phili. 12:2 Now may the
God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the eternal High-priest Himself the [Son of
God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth, and in all gentleness and in all avoidance of wrath and in forbearance and long suffering and in patient endurance and in purity; and may He grant unto you a lot and portion among His saints, and to us with you, and to all that are under heaven, who shall believe on
our Lord and God Jesus Christ and on His Father
that raised him from the dead. (Polycarp)
“And I said, ‘As you wish, Trypho, I shall come to these proofs which you seek in the fitting place; but now you will permit me first to recount the prophecies, which I wish to do in order to prove
that Christ is called both God and Lord of hosts, and Jacob, in parable by the Holy Spirit; and your interpreters, as God says, are foolish, since they say that reference is made to Solomon and not to Christ, when he bore the ark of testimony into the temple which he built.’ ” (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 36)
“
He that hung up the earth in space was Himself hanged up; He that fixed the heavens was fixed with nails; He that bore up the earth was borne up on a tree; the Lord of all was subjected to ignominy in a naked body—God put to death! the King of Israel slain with Israel’s right hand! Alas for the new wickedness of the new murder! The Lord was exposed with naked body: He was not deemed worthy even of covering; and, in order that He might not be seen, the luminaries turned away, and the day became darkened because they slew God, who hung naked on the tree." (Melito of Sardis, Part V)
“The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father ‘to gather all things in one,’ and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that
to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess”
2788to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all; that He may send ‘spiritual wickednesses,’ and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire;” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1.10.1)
“This Word, then, the Christ, the cause of both our being at first (for He was in God) and of our well-being, this very Word has now appeared as man,
He alone being both, both God and man—the Author of all blessings to us; by whom we, being taught to live well, are sent on our way to life eternal.
” (Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, 1)
“Thus some men are very bad, and some very good; but yet the souls of all form but one genus: even in the worst there is something good, and in the best
221there is something bad. For God alone is without sin; and the only man without sin is Christ,
since Christ is also God.” (Tertullian, Treatise on the Soul, Part 1, 41)
“The Logos alone of this
God is from
God himself;
wherefore also the Logos is God, being
the substance of God.” (Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, 10.29)
