Some people think that God owes them an explanation for who He is and what He does. He doesn’t! Before the Lord created all that exists, He lived forever—free of the need for anyone or anything. He has always been perfect in every way and has no need of anything to be complete or increase His happiness.

It is we who need God and are completely lost and hopeless without Him. Some people act as though it would be some great accomplishment for God if they would turn to Him. Others think that they will defy God or argue with Him about His righteousness or judgement.

There are several places in the Bible where people have attempted these things and it did not go well for them.

God does not have to explain anything to you. Either you recognize your need for Him, or you don’t. Either you fall before Him in repentance for your sins and receive the forgiveness and pardon He offers, or you reject His command—at your own peril.

God is perfect in righteousness and completely Holy. It is impossible that He could ever do wrong, and there is no darkness in Him at all. If we misunderstand what God has said or done, it is we who are wrong, not God.

The term “God” is defined as a Being who is perfect in every regard. Any being who is not perfect would not be God, with a big “G” he would simply be one god amongst many imperfect gods, little “g.”

The exclusive example of God existing as more than one is found in the Bible. The Biblical God is a compound unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; meaning that three persons are all described as one God. The Hebrew name for God אֱלֹהִים ’ lôhîym (Elohim) is plural, a unity of Three.

Perfect Unity is the only way that three Beings who are perfect could be understood. Only if these three were in complete unity of mind, will, and purpose could they function as one God. It would be impossible for several Beings to exist as separate Gods. Their lack of unity would define them as less than perfect, therefore not God.

A part of perfection is unity. Unity is defined as “the state of being united or joined as a whole.” In mathematics, unity is defined by the number one therefore, three persons who are perfect must exist in perfect unity as one. For this reason, the true God must be singular.

Since there can only be one God (big G), this first premise requires that He must be perfect in every regard, incapable of error. If God were able to commit error, He would not be perfect, and therefore he could not be God.

Since God is perfect, He must also be eternal. For no created being, who came into existence at some point in time by the work of one who existed before him, could be perfect since he has relied upon one before him for his existence. The fact that a god could be created removes the certainty that he is perfect—lacking the ability to exist before and apart from all other things.

In this regard, any created being could not be God (big G).

When atheists ask the question, “who created God?”, they are implying that the kind of God they are thinking of is a created God. In this regard, this kind of being is a logical impossibility.

The fact that a created god requires one before him for his existence would define his creator as greater than the one he has made. If we continue to follow all of these created gods back to their source, we never arrive at one who is the original and the source of all others.

If, however, God can be defined as singular, with no beginning, having no creator and being eternal—this God would be perfect and would fulfill the true definition of God.

This is precisely the definition of the God who is revealed in the pages of the Bible.

“You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me. —Isaiah 43:10

…Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.  —Isaiah 44:8

Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. —Psalms 90:2

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. Psalms 33:6

The God of the Bible is eternal, has no beginning, and was not formed by any god before Him. He simply exists and always has. This God is perfect, knows all things, is unlimited, and does not require a cause for His existence.

By His perfection and eternality, this God is superior to all other gods and religions of the world.

God: His Perfection

Perfection is one attribute of God’s nature that tells us many important truths. First among these is the fact that God cannot do anything that is imperfect. If God were capable of imperfection, He would not be God. What conveys God His exalted position as God above all gods is that He exists—perfect in every way.

When we consider what this means, we understand that God must be perfectly good, all of the time. He can do no evil, nor can He dwell with evil.

The Problems Of Evil, Suffering, and Death

If we imagine that God is responsible for the evil that is in the world or that sickness, suffering or death are caused by Him or, at least, permitted by Him, we have misunderstood who God is.

The fact that evil, sickness, suffering, and death are present on earth tells us that something happened outside of God that has caused this to take place.

When we study the Bible, we are made aware that these travesties of human life came into the world as a result of sin, not by command or the will of God. It was the purpose of God that people live in a perfect world where they would never die. He made the world for us and gave only one law: do not partake of the knowledge of good and evil. Remain pure and innocent, and by your obedience to God’s command you show your true love and trust in what He says.

Adam was a creature of resplendent beauty. He was far wiser than any man after him. He commanded the earth and all its physical laws and creatures. God gave Adam dominion over the whole earth and no creature was above or greater than he. Adam was not deceived as Eve; he willingly disobeyed God’s command and caused the fall of all humans after him.

If God Is Love, Why Does Suffering and Death Exist?

The evil and suffering we see on earth was caused by the fall of man and the presence of sin.

We might wonder why God has not done anything about these problem of evil and suffering?

The fact is, He has.

Before God created the universe, He knew that mankind would fall into sin and be lost. Jesus offered His life for the world before the universe existed. He is Called “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).

Immediately after Adam’s fall, in Genesis 3:15, God promised a Savior who would come into the world and make salvation possible.

God fulfilled this promise when Jesus arrived, died for us, and rose again. This was the first arrival of Jesus—for salvation. He will come a second time for judgment.

The entire purpose of Jesus coming to earth as God in the form of a man, the first time, was to pay the debt we owe for our sins and make salvation possible for anyone who would believe.

He plans to return a second time to finally end evil, suffering, sickness, and death.

A part of salvation that occurred after Jesus’ death on the cross was to break the power of sickness, suffering, and death. At the cross Jesus took the curse that now exists on earth which causes these things, because of sin, and encompass it into His Being.

For God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  ~2 Corinthians 5:21 (RCR)

Instead of punishing us for our sins, God punished His Son. In doing this, God had a just reason to acquit us from our guilt, since the sins of every person were paid by Jesus. Anyone can partake of this salvation by a genuine sorrow for their sins, a desire for salvation, and a turning to Jesus as their Savior.

Why do we still see sickness, suffering, and death if Jesus’ death defeated these things? Remember that God’s plan has two parts: The first arrival of Jesus is for salvation; He will come a second time for judgment when sin, suffering, and death will be judged and removed.

Part One: Jesus comes to suffer and die for our sins. He dies on the cross and takes the punishment we deserve. His death and resurrection defeat sin and death although they will remain on earth until He comes again.

Between the two arrivals of Jesus, God institutes a time of His grace when anyone—regardless of who they are or what they have done—can receive the forgiveness of their sins.

This time of grace has lasted for nearly 2,000 years.

Part Two: Jesus will come again as a victorious and reigning King. At that time sin, suffering, and death will be removed from the earth. When Jesus returns, no one will ever grow old, get sick, suffer, or die again. Sin and evil will be banished from the earth forever.

Today, we are living during a time of Grace when God is exercising mercy and patience in giving people time to hear what Jesus has done, turn from their sins, and receive the salvation Jesus died to make possible.

For the time being, God is being patient and giving the world an opportunity. This is the reason we are here and the primary purpose of our existence, salvation.

When this period of Grace is at an end, Jesus will come again to judge the world.

If we refuse to believe what God said; to turn from our sins and receive the Savior He sent into the world, it is we who will suffer, not God. Everything that God did in creating the universe and sending His Son to earth to die for us, is for our benefit, not His. Jesus suffered untold torture and set aside His rights as God, so that He could make salvation available to us. If we do not recognize the cost that was involved, and give full appreciation for what Jesus has done, we are the epitome of fools.

If we obey God and do what He said, we will have eternity to enjoy our wise decision and a perfect life forever. If we disobey and will not submit ourselves to the Lord, it is we who will have an eternity to regret our foolishness.

Many People Misunderstand God

• By the Old Testament, some imagine that God is angry and vengeful, eager to punish sin.
• By the New Testament, some imagine that God is loving and merciful, and would never judge sin.

What we find is that both are necessary to properly understand who God is and what He requires:

• Old Testament:  God is just, and will punish sin.
• New Testament: God has punished sin, in His own Son, so that He can show us mercy and grace.

The God of the Old and New Testaments is exactly the same. He is Just, and will punish sin—while He is equally merciful and loving towards those who come to Him in humility and a willingness to turn from their sins.

The God of the universe takes very slow and careful steps in teaching us about Himself. The Old Testament was necessary to establish His Holiness and hatred of sin, and what it has done to His creation. The New Testament provides the solution to sin by the arrival of His Son, the Savior of the world.

God punished His Son for our sins, because Jesus was willing and freely offered His life for us.  By taking our sins upon Himself, Jesus paid the just requirement of God and provided a way for those who would believe to be forgiven and restored to a wonderful new relationship with the Living God.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He loves us, but He will not tolerate our sin. He has provided a way for those sins to be removed. If we choose to believe and accept His offer to make us perfect by Jesus’ Sacrifice, then we can have fellowship with Him. If we choose not to believe, and reject the way God has provided, then we leave ourselves without any other means of being saved.

We Should Not Ignore God, Nor His Command To Repent, And Believe The Gospel

There are examples in the Bible of God’s warning to past generation who did not listen and persisted in their rebellion against His sovereignty.

The angels who disobeyed God, were cast out of heaven and held in hell for the final day of Judgement.

At the flood, God warned the world for 100 years while Noah was building the Ark. People continued to laugh at Noah and scoff at the judgment of God. Everyone who refuse to turn to God, died. Only Noah and his family were saved.

In Genesis 17-19, the pre-incarnate Jesus came to Sodom and Gomorrah with two angels. We know that this is Jesus, the LORD, Jehovah, because the Hebrew text calls Him the LORD (Jehovah/Yaweh).[1] When the New Testament was written in Greek, the translators of Greek into English, understood that when Jesus is called LORD, he is the same Yahweh/Jehovah who is described in the Old Testament.[2]

The two angels went to Sodom and Gomorrah to see if their sexual sin was as dire as had been reported. The Lord Jesus went on ahead. In chapter 19, we see that it was the LORD, Jesus, who brought the fire and brimstone to Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed these two cites for their sexual sin.

That evening the two angels came to the entrance of the city of Sodom. ~Genesis 19:1 (NLT)

Then the Lord (יְהוָֹה yhwh;) rained down fire and burning sulfur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation. ~Genesis 19:24-25 (NLT)

God has, in times past, bound the fallen angels in Hell, destroyed everyone on earth, except Noah and his family, and wiped out the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah; because they determined to oppose God and not obey His command to turn from their sin and to live for Him.

For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment. And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood. Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. ~2 Peter 2:4-6 (NLT)

Some have said, today, that it was not sexual sin that was the reason the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. We find in the New Testament that those who say these things, are wrong.

But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. ~2 Peter 2:7-10 (NLT)

Sodom was filled with immorality, wickedness, and twisted sexual desire.

In confirmation of this, Jude writes:

As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. ~Jude 1:7 

As Creator of all that exist, it is Gods sovereign right to determine what the moral laws are for all people. Because God is morally pure and perfect in every way, He demands that human beings, who were made like Him and in His image, also be morally perfect. When God created the first man and woman on earth, they were perfect. They became sinners by their rebellion against God and refusal to obey Him. The sin that resulted was similar to a plague of disease that infected the whole human race. We are all sinners by nature today, because of the rebellion and disobedience of Adam and Eve.

We cannot blame the first humans for our destiny of judgment for sins, for we all chose to disobey God today by our own private rebellion. All of the evil, sickness, suffering, and death that exists in the world is because of our sins. Most of the suffering of this present world could immediately be alleviated by human beings. If we would stop using money to build weapons to kill, material wealth to hoard, and redistribute abundant food that already exists. We could stop most of the suffering of our world, if we would only do it.

We could stop evil in this world if people would cease from their evil and live righteously. In every event where evil is present, it is human beings who commit evil against other humans.

Some people try to blame God for what is clearly the fault of human beings.

• Sickness and death came because of sin.
• Suffering and evil exist because we commit and permit it.
• These are the faults of human beings, not God

Immediately upon the fall of Adam into sin, in Genesis 3:15, we see the first prophecy of the Bible where God promises to send a Savior who will be born by the Seed of a Woman, an Old Testament allusion to a Virgin birth. Jesus fulfilled this prophecy when He came into the world and bought our salvation with His life. He crushed the head of the serpent, satan, and freed all those who believe, from the curse of death and sin, forever.

Although these precious treasures of forgiveness of all sins, and eternal life exist and are available today, a majority of people in the world repeat the rebellion of the first humans and refuse to submit to God and live the righteous lives we were made for.

Although God created a magnificent universe for the sole purpose of showing us that He exists and to provide a planet where human life could thrive, people persist in their lie that there is no evidence for God. The universe exists as the most stellar proof that God must exist.

God Has Done Everything—We Must Respond Accordingly

• God did not have to make the universe.
• He did not have to create human beings.
• He did not have to offer His Son to die for us.
• Jesus did not have to come to earth and give His life.
• Men did not have to be called to preach the Gospel of salvation.
• God did not have to leave us a written record of His plan of salvation.
• Jesus did not have to promise to return.
• God did not have to give us heaven.
• God did not have to bother with us at all.
• God does not owe us anything.

The Events Of History Which Prove The Existence Of God

The Bible is unique amongst all other holy books and religions in that it describes God as the creator of the universe. All other gods and religions describe the things they create, from within the existing universe. It was the forethought of God to communicate with us by the same method we use, words. God called special men who were set apart for Him, to record a transcendent communication to the people of earth. He told us who He is, and how He planned to create us before He made the universe. He knew that we would rebel against Him and necessitate our redemption. He offered His life for us, before the universe exited (Revelation12:10), and described by over 400 predictions, exactly what this Savior would be like.

This God ensured that what He wanted to say to us, survived through every generation and became available to every person. Understanding that God has the technology to create this vast universe, it is not hard to understand that He has the ability to make certain that His word does not become corrupted, destroyed or lost.

The Bible Is The Extant Record of God’s Communication With Mankind

What makes the Bible different from all other holy books?

1. The existence of predictive and fulfilled prophecy, proving that God is the author.
2. The offer of salvation to every person, regardless of who they are or what they have done—free of cost, available to anyone who believes.
3. A Salvation that ends sin, evil, suffering, and death, man’s chief problems.
4. A Savior who is the Creator/God, humbling Himself for the one’s He is dying for.
5. A humble entrance into the world, living in obscurity, experiencing all the same trials, temptations, hurts, and difficulties of all human beings.
6. A Savior who truly loves us, and was willing to die to prove His love.
7. A record of all His life, death, and resurrection; recorded by faithful men, preserved for the world by the Great God who owns and controls everything in this universe.

There are no other god’s or religions who have, or would, do these things.

Today, we have men and women who claim to have greater knowledge about the events that took place 2,000 years ago when Jesus came to earth, than the men who actually wrote their historical narrative. Men, today, who are known as “scholars,” dispute the narratives of Jesus that are recorded in the New Testament as true and reliable. What is their basis for their assertion that the New Testament is not true? Their opinion. There is NO evidence whatsoever that the New Testament is not exactly what it presents itself to be; a narrative of the Savior God promised the world.

The New Testament Is A Valid Historical Representation Of Genuine Events

According to every requirement for any event of history which exists today by a written record, the New Testament passes every demand. See: “The New Testament Passes Every Literary Test of History”

Using an unprovable theory that the narratives of Jesus are forged and written for the purpose of making Jesus God, when He never claimed to be God, today’s New Testament critics assert that we cannot trust the New Testament. I have studied the evidence for the reliability of the New Testament for nearly 44 years and found that the text is absolutely reliable in every way.

1. The New Testament is largely comprised of personal letters written from one person to another. It is not written a as a story that was contrived.
2. The New Testament contains specific statements by the writers in various places that they are eyewitnesses.
3. The entire scope of all 27 book of the New Testament is about one person; Jesus of Nazareth, who fulfilled over 400 Old Testament, Messianic Prophecies.
4. The fulfillment of these prophecies is the proof that Jesus is both God and Messiah.
5. If the New Testament is a forgery and makes Jesus God and Messiah when He is not, how is it that the entire basis of the Old Testament, predicts every event that Jesus accomplished, in precise detail? Jesus repeatedly asserted that He is God throughout the Gospels, and repeated by the writers of the other 23 books of the New Testament, 391 times?
6. In order to believe that the New Testament is a fraud, we would have to also believe that the entire Old Testament is a fraud. Both confirm the promise and fulfillment of the Savior God promised to send the world in Genesis 3:15.
7. in order to believe that men constructed the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, written over a period of 1,500 years, by 40 different authors, all to deceive the world, we would have to imagine the greatest fraud ever perpetrated upon mankind. It is not possible!
8. If this were true, how do we explain that every prophecy of the Hebrew texts, were precisely fulfilled by Jesus? See “Prophecies of the Messiah.”
9. How is it that the text of the New Testament which exists today by 24,593 surviving manuscript copies, contains the precise same events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, that is in our Bible today?
10. The events that were first recorded in the New Testament are the proof that Jesus existed, was crucified in fulfillment of the Hebrew prophets, and rose from the dead, in fulfillment of the Hebrew prophets.
11. There is no evidence today, other than opinions, conjecture, and speculation of critics, that the New Testament is not completely true.
12. There is also a substantial secular record that fully validates Jesus in Jerusalem during the same time that the New Testament places Him there—performing miracles, crucified, and risen from the dead.
13. There are over 31,000 references to Jesus’ death and resurrection in early church writing, dated from the first century.
14. An entire New Testament commentary on every New Testament book, and all four Gospels fully assembled and already disseminated throughout the world, by the beginning of the second century.
15. The internal structure of the New Testament passes every criteria of scrutiny for reliable text and shows no evidence of forgery, fraud, or deceit. Anyone who simply reads the complete text of the New Testament for themselves, can easily see that the narrative about Jesus is written as a genuine account of actual events.
16. Jesus told the men who followed Him that they were His eyewitnesses, and they were appointed by Him to write a complete record of all He said and did concerning the salvation He bought for us, and send it to the world.

Atheist New Testament Scholar Bart Ehrman Said The New Testament Is Not Written By Eyewitnesses

“Our next earliest sources of information about the historical Jesus are the Gospels of the New Testament. As it turns out, these are our best sources. They are best not because they happen to be in the New Testament, but because they are also the earliest narratives of Jesus’s life to survive. But even though they are the best sources available to us, they really are not as good as we might hope…they are not written by eyewitnesses…”[3]

Despite Ehrman’s assertion that the New Testament is not written by eyewitnesses, the writers themselves state that their testimony about Jesus is what they saw and heard.

The evidence proves that the four Gospels are written by eyewitnesses. In fact, when you read these narratives for yourself, you will see that these men state specifically that they are eyewitness.

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. ~2 Peter 1:16-18

John writes that he has both seen and testified that the evidence contained in the Gospels is true and he knows that he is telling the truth because he was there and saw Jesus do these things.

And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. ~John 19:35

Paul records the purpose of the four Gospels of Jesus as historical narratives of actual events, recounted by eyewitnesses.

“Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” ~Acts 1:21-22

As Peter stands before thousands of people from all over the world on the Day of Pentecost, he describes David as a prophet, predicting the Messiah who would come from his line of descendants. Peter said that David predicted the Messiah would be killed and resurrected and the men who saw these things would be His witnesses.

“Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.” ~Acts 2:29-32

Ehrman’s conclusions are based solely upon his idea that the stories about Jesus are too spectacular to be true; God doesn’t exist and miracles are not possible; therefore, the disciples of Jesus made up these stories.

Most people who have read Dr. Ehrman’s New York Times Bestsellers assume that he made these conclusions based upon evidence. When we read his books, we find that conclusions are made by conjecture and there is no evidence in the historical record which support his ideas.

Ehrman began with the assumption that God does not exist; therefore Jesus cannot be God; therefore Jesus did not do what is recorded of Him in the New Testament.
Now you see how the world has arrived at a place where an atheist scholar dictates to us whether Jesus is represented correctly in the New Testament.

The Primary Problem With The New Testament Today Is That People Do Not Read It, Study It, And Try To Understand What It Says.

After spending many hundreds of hours in debate with atheists regarding the reliability of the New Testament, I realized that the persons for whom I was debating, did not know the material they were criticizing. It became clear to me after several years that atheists and New Testament critics, have not devoted a serious study of the text, with the purpose of trying to understand the narrative.

My challenge to anyone who believes that the New Testament is not a reliable story is to devote 90 days to reading the entire text, over and over again, with the intent of understanding all that is being said. It is certain that anyone who will undertake such a task will have a change in attitude towards the New Testament very quickly.

This challenge works equally well for the Jew, as well as the Gentile. In my discussions with serious Jews, I have not found that many were willing to read the text of the New Testament with an open mind, and for the purpose of understanding what the text is saying.

I have found that the best translation for experiencing the New Testament in a favorable light, is the New Living Translation 2015 Edition. Drastic changes took place in this newer 2015 edition. This modern translation is specifically created for reading and understanding the stories. After studying the entire Bible for over 40 years, I have found new enjoyment is reading the New Living Translation as all the old familiar stories I have know for many years, came alive in ways I never imagined. In every case, I have seen and understood more by simply reading the story of the New Testament, than by a painstaking and diligent word for word study in the KJV or NKJV versions of the Bible.

Although the atheist may not be convinced by simply reading through the New Testament in the New Living Translation, they will find that their entire view of the Bible will radically change. This may be a door that opens an entirely new world of understanding for anyone who takes up this challenge and does so with sincerity.

The Greatest Error That We Can Make Is A Failure To Understand Who God Is

1. God has given us evidence of His existence by a universe that is not possible by any natural process.
2. He has left to us a written record that reveals who He is and what He requires of every human being.
3. God came to earth as a human being and lived a perfect and sinless life. He died for every person on a Roman cross and paid our debt for sin.

These three are all the proof that any person needs to understand that God exists and to know who He is.

God Does Not Owe Us Anything, It Is We Who Owe Him Everything.

NOTES:

[1] 1. YAHWEH, Old Testament, Proper Noun: יהוה (yhwh), GK 3378 (S 3068/3069), 6829x. The Hebrew name yhwh or “Yawheh,” commonly translated into English as “the Lord.”
2. (ExBibComm) “Jesus” (Iesous) is the Greek form of “Joshua” (cf. Gr. of Acts 7:45; Heb 4:8), which, whether in the long form yehosua (“Yahweh is salvation,” Exod 24:13) or in one of the short forms, e.g., yesua( (“Yahweh saves,” Neh 7:7), identifies Mary’s Son as the one who brings Yahweh’s promised eschatological salvation.
[2] In the New Testament, there are several occurrences where the Greek word for God, Theos, is used. Most often, this word is used only in describing the Father. However, there are several places in the New Testament where Theos is also used to describe Jesus Christ.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word (Jesus) , and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Theos).

Romans 9:5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God (Theos). Amen.

Hebrews 1:8 But to the Son (Jesus) He says: “Your throne, O God (Theos), is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.”

In the Old Testament, the term Lord in Hebrew is Yahweh.

In the New Testament, the word Lord  in Greek is Kyrios.

Kyrios is often used as a polite way to address a person, such as when we address a man today as sir. It can also mean master, as in one who rules over a servant or slave. The Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint was widely used during the time Jesus was here on the earth. The word Kyrios or Lord was understood as Yahweh or Jehovah. The Greek Old Testament translates Kyrios as Lord 6,814 times.

When we arrive at the New Testament, there are also many occasions where Lord (Kyrios) is used to describe Jesus. This is for good reason. The writers of the New Testament were attributing the title of Jehovah God to Jesus Christ unmistakably. It was well understood at the writing of the New Testament that Jesus Christ is Yahweh or God Himself. Why the Jehovah’s Witness church has claimed that Jesus Christ is not Jehovah God is a great mystery. They did not come to this conclusion by the evidence of the Old and New Testament scriptures. The translators of the New Testament understood that Jehovah God and Jesus are one and the same person. Further, it is clear that those who walked with, talked with, and knew Jesus understood and believed that He is the eternal Jehovah-God or Yahweh of the Old Testament.

John 20:28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Titus 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ…

Hebrews 1:8 But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.”

[3] Ehrman, Bart D.. How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (pp. 89-90). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Categories: Agnostics and Skeptics, Atheists, Bart Ehrman, Being Thankful, Literary authenticity of the New Testament, Messiah comes as a child, Messianic Prophecies, Not understanding salvation, Prophecy, Reliability of the New Testament, Robert Clifton Robinson, Science and the Bible, Studying the Word of God, The gay lifestyle, The Historical Jesus, The Importance of the Bible, The world rejects Jesus, True Repentance, Understanding Suffering, We must see our need

Tags: 100 Proofs of Jesus From Non Biblical Sources, A Universe made for a purpose, Barriers to God, Creation of the Universe, Defending God, Empirical Evidence For God, Evidence for God from the universe, Extra-biblical evidence for Jesus, God: As Creator, Jesus as God, Jesus became sin, Prophecies of the Messiah, When Did God Create the Universe?