IS CHRIST GOD? PART I

BY CYRUS

WHO WAS THE WORD IN JOHN 1:1?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  (JN 1:1, New American Bible)

Q1: What and who was the Word?

A1: The Word was a life-giving Spirit who coexisted with God in heaven in eternity (1COR 15:45, 47).  The Word was none other than Christ, the Anointed of God (PS 2:2; JN 4:25-26).  After His prophesied incarnation was fulfilled (ISA 7:14, 9:5; MT 1:21-23), Christ was given the human name JESUS (MT 1:21, 25; LK 1:31, 2:21), the Name that is above every name of which absolutely all must worship (PHIL 2:9-10; HEB 1:6).  Therefore, the destructive heresies (2PT 2:1) that the Word was just a plan, a scheme, or what have you, which were being peddled around by the false teachers today, are excrements that must be flushed in the toilet bowl right away.

Q2: What is the proof of Christ being the Word?

A2: The “Word” is short for the “Word of God.”  The Word of God has many names like, "Faithful and True," "King of kings and Lord of lords," and even an undisclosed name (REV 19:11-16).  The Faithful and True is the source of God's creation (REV 3:14), who is none other than Christ (JN 1:3; ACTS 3:15; Col 1:15-17).  The King of kings and Lord of lords is the Lamb (RV 17:14), who is none other than Christ (JN 1:29, 36).  The prophet Isaiah was the first recorded in the Scriptures to name the LORD God as the Faithful and True (ISA 25:1).  The LORD God referred to by Isaiah is none other than Christ - the Alpha and the Omega who is coming soon (RV 1:8, 22:20).

Now that we’d proven that the Word was none other than Christ, we’ll substitute the said God’s Name in John 1:1, thus, we have:

In the beginning was Christ, and Christ was with God, and Christ was God.

Actually, there are at least two Bible Translations that are succinct enough to name Christ as indeed the Word, and here they are:

In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.  (Amplified Bible)

BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE existed, there was Christ, with God.  He has always been alive and is Himself God.  (The Living Bible, Tyndale)

An ambiguous rendition of the same verse above was that of the Lamsa Translation which implies God (the Father) was the Word and not Christ (the Son):

THE WORD was in the beginning, and that very Word was with God, and God was that Word.

The mistranslation of John 1:1 by Dr. George Lamsa was made conspicuous with just 13 verses forward in his own bible version.  From John 1:1, God the Father (Word) turned out to be the first-born of the Father in this verse below:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, a glory like that of the first-born of the Father, full of grace and truth.  (JN 1:14)

Also in John 1:18, Dr. Lamsa sounded it like God the Father (Word/first-born) is in the bosom of his Father:

No man has ever seen God; but the first-born of God, who is in the bosom of his Father, he has declared him.  (JN 1:18)

In fairness to Dr. Lamsa, he may be very zealous in attributing the Word to the Father, but his fervor became undone in his mistranslation of ACTS 20:28.  In JN 1:1, Dr. Lamsa said, “and God was that Word” and in JN 1:14, he said, “the Word became flesh.”  The implication of Dr. Lamsa was very clear: God became flesh.  Dr. Lamsa could not be more divinely inspired in positively proclaiming the truth of God which jibes perfectly with 1TM 3:16, KJV, which says: God was manifest in the flesh.  But alas, Dr. Lamsa’s passion for God wafted “like a morning cloud or like the dew that early passes away, like chaff storm-driven from the threshing floor or like smoke out of the window” when he made a boo-boo in mistranslating Acts 20:28 in this wise:

Take heed therefore to yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, to feed the church of Christ which he has purchased with his blood.  (ACTS 20:28)

In all his earlier translations cited above, Dr. Lamsa was consistently affirming God was the Word, and that the Word (God) became flesh.  Ergo, he should be the most viable bible translator who would have steadfastly stuck to his guns that It was God who shed his blood to purchase his church.  But no, he contradicted himself instead.  All the other Bible Translations of ACTS 20:28 either say church of God or church of the Lord.  Only the Lamsa Translation says church of Christ.

Actually, God and Christ are interchangeable as the Father and Christ are one (JN 10:30).  Unfortunately, there are certain perverted people and churches that capitalizes on the title “church of Christ” who trade on the word of God to overstuff their wallets and coffers (2COR 2:17).  The sadder reality is that these wicked people and churches don’t even believe in the Divinity of Christ and won’t interchange God and Christ come hell or high water.  They just flaunt the Holy Name of God for their own greed that is idolatry (COL 3:5).  For mocking the Name of God by attributing it to a mere man, a false Christ (2COR 11:4), they are also guilty of violating the commandment of God that says:

You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.  For the LORD will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain.  (DEUT 5:11)

The worst translation of John 1:1 and 1:18 was provided by the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, a self-serving, tailor-made, homemade bible of the Jehovah’s Witnesses which made the Word (Christ) a mere god – a fake God, ie, an idol (1JN 5:21).  This is primarily due to their adamant denial of the Divinity of Christ, whom they treat as a no-no God and coldly called “one”:

In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.  This one was in [the] beginning with God.  (JN 1:1-2)

No man has seen God at any time; the only‐begotten god who is in the bosom [position] with the Father is the one that has explained him.  (JN 1:18)

I just can’t help wondering whether Jehovah’s Witnesses ever bent their knees to worship their “god” aka “one” in obedience to this word of God:

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth.  (PHIL 2:10)

_________________________

OH MY GOD OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME, I pray to You, please save us all Your children from these ravenous wolves in our midst today especially in our poor country, the Philippines (MT 7:15).  I beseech You in the Holy Name of Jesus Christ Your Son, in unity of the Holy Spirit, and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Amen.

† † †

_________________________