Expert: Marilyn - 2/16/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hello Marilyn ,
Need to know the correct answer about following issues?
1- about Jesus . who is Jesus?
2- The virgine Mary . who is she in relation with Jesus?
what is origin sin in the bible?
1-Before Jesus was thier Christinity?
2-before Moses . was Judism exist?

best regards
aziz

ANSWER: Jesus was a Jewish Prophet who worked in the carpenter trade and lived in Galilee.  The Bible says He was born to a virgin named Mary, in Bethlehem.  He proved very wise as a child, discussing spiritual matters with the teachers in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem at age 12, see Luke 2:41-50.  He sometimes called Himself the “Son of Man.”  

In Matthew 16:13-16, Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”  They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  “But what about you?” He asked.  “Who do you say I am?”  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus answered, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in Heaven.”  

He did miracles of healing, of hiding in crowds, of walking on water and finally, of rising from the dead.  We know He truly existed because the ancient historians wrote about Him.  

A person will die for something he believes in, but nobody will die for something he knows is a lie.  This is how we know Jesus truly rose from the dead:  All His apostles, except one, were killed for preaching Jesus crucified and raised from the dead.  

John chapter 1 says that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh.  Hebrews says that He is the “radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His Being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word,” Hebrews 1:3.  He came to show the Father to human beings, to demonstrate His love for all humanity and to pay for sin.  The price for sin is death.  Any sin, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you or me requires the same penalty--death.  

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever should believe in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.”   Jesus took our death penalty.  He could do this because He never sinned.  And because He never sinned, He could be raised from the dead and thus defeat death and promise to those who will believe in Him that we also will be raised from the dead.  But more importantly, those who will believe that He has paid the penalty and is raised from the dead and will confess with their mouths that they believe this--these will not be separated from God because of sin, but will be admitted into Heaven as children of God, brothers and sisters with Jesus, John 15:13.  

God is Three in One:  the Father, the Son (or the Word), and the Holy Spirit.  This idea seems difficult.  But, think of your computer.  Your computer is three in one, it is the operating system, it is the software and it is the hardware--you must have all three in order to have a computer.  The computer is one thing, but it is composed of these three elements.  You are three in one, you are an eternal spirit, you experience and interact with the world through your soul, which is composed of your mind, will and emotions and you live in a body.  God is the English translation of the Name “Elohim” which appears in Genesis 1:1.  Elohim means “Strength And Faithfulness” and because it is plural in form indicates Three Persons in One.

Mary is Jesus’ human mother.  She was a virgin until after Jesus was born.  She conceived Him by the Holy Spirit.  Before she conceived, she was betrothed to a man named Joseph, a carpenter by trade.  When she told him she was pregnant, he planned to divorce her, but in a dream an angel explained that she had never been unfaithful to him, but carried the Son of God.  She was a godly young woman, probably a teenager.  And God chose her because the time was right for His Son to come into the world, she was a godly young woman and she would obey Him.  Joseph was also important; in a sense, he also was chosen and for similar reasons:  he was godly and would obey the Lord.

Original sin refers to the first sin when Adam rebelled against God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Eve was tricked, but Adam took the fruit and ate without anybody tricking him, lying to him or applying any force.  The sin nature entered all Adam’s seed at that moment and as a result all children conceived by the normal means--that is the joining of a man and a woman--have been born sinful.  Adam’s rebellion brought physical and spiritual change in him.  (Jesus could be born sinless because He was not conceived by a human being, but by the Holy Spirit.)  Because God breathed the “breath of life” into Adam, the man is the person who carries the spark that becomes a human spirit at conception.  Adam’s “breath of life” and all those he carried within him became infected with sin.  Thus, because Jesus did not have a human father, He could be born free of sin.

Until Jesus was raised from the dead, Christianity did not exist.  Jesus had disciples, but they were just followers of Jesus the Rabbi.  After He was raised from the dead, Christianity began.  Christianity rests upon belief in the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead, without that, Christianity ceases to be Christianity.

Before Moses received the tablets of the Law, before the people committed themselves to God and before the first tabernacle, Judaism did not exist.  God-fearing people existed and they obtained forgiveness of sin by offering an animal as a substitute death payment.  These were people like Job or Moses' father-in-law and his family who were not part of the Semite tribe descended from Abraham.  Abraham himself wasn’t Jewish though he is the father of the Jews.  (I’m using the name “Jew” or the term “jewish” to refer to people who observe Judaism.)  The children of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, went into Egypt as Israelites, not Jews, and those who died there waiting for their release from slavery were not yet Jews.  Through Moses God issued the Ten Commandments, established a priesthood and tabernacle or temple worship and Judaism was born.  

The purpose of the Law was to make clear to human beings that we are all sinners.  Before the Law was written down, people only knew right from wrong based on their personal ideas or conscience.  Judaism looks for the Messiah, the One who will put an end to sin and set world government to right.  Jesus fulfilled the first part of that hope when He died and was raised from the dead.  He will fulfill the second part when the time is right.

May the Lord bless you with understanding and answers to all your questions,

Marilyn


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Marilyn,
thanks for your nice 7 sufficient answer & i do respect your speech.
one thing i would like to know from you so i can be 100 percent convinced  about your belief.
1- Can you show in your Bible that Jesus said i am God  ?
2- Did jesus saud in the Bible that worship me ?
if you can prove to me that then i am willing to accept this religion.

thanks
aziz

ANSWER: Hello Aziz;

Regarding the question, "Is Jesus God?"

John 10:24-33:  “The Jews gathered around Him (Jesus), saying, “How long will You keep us in suspense?  If You are the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One), tell us plainly.”  
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe.  The miracles I do in My Father’s Name speak for Me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.  My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  I and the Father are One.”  
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father.  For which of these miracles do you stone me?”  
“We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”  

Just before His crucifixion, Jesus explains to His disciples that He is returning to the Father in John 14.  
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.  If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well.  From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.”
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered:  “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?  Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’  Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me?  The words I say to you are not just my own.  Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, Who is doing His work.  Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves,” verses 5-11.

In John 17 Jesus is praying.  It is only a short while before He will be crucified.  He says, “Father, the time has come.  Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You,” verse 2.  In verse 5, during the same prayer, Jesus says, “And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began.”   

A little while after He’d finished praying, the temple guards came to arrest Jesus and take Him to the high priest.  The scene is described in Matthew 26:63 & 64:  “The high priest said to Jesus, “I charge you under oath by the living God:  Tell us if you are the Christ (or Messiah), the Son of God.”  “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.”

Jesus said, “I and the Father are One.”  The listeners took Him to mean that He said He is God and I understand it the same way because in John 17 Jesus says, “...glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began.”  If Jesus and the Father are One and He was there with God before the world began, then He is God.  

In Hebrews 1:1 & 2 we read:  “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.”  Again, this passage restates that Jesus was there, with the Father, before anything was created, but not only that, that it was through Jesus that everything was made.

John 1 says that Jesus is the Word made flesh.  In Genesis 1 “And God said...” appears seven times:  “And God said, “Let there be light...;” “And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters...God called the expanse “sky;” and so forth.  Just as Jesus did while He was here in human form, so He also has done throughout time:  He performs what God speaks.  He is the Word.  He is the part of God who acts, this is simplistic and not quite accurate, but Jesus is the “muscle,” the part that causes things to happen, the part of God who puts into place what God speaks.  

Of His Word God says, “As the rain and the snow come down from Heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My Word that goes out from My mouth; It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it,” Isaiah 55:10 & 11.

Jesus’ attitude from the time He first appears in the Bible until the end of Revelation is to glorify His Father and in so doing find glory in obedience and service.  He was the Word of God before He was placed in Mary’s womb, after that He became the Son of God, God’s First Born, though He has never stopped also being the Word.  Hebrews 1:5 quotes Psalm 2:7, “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.”  

And having sent His Son, His Word in human flesh, to pay for human sin, God intends to receive many, many more sons and daughters through their faith in Jesus.  “He is the Image of the Invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by Him all things were created; things in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible; whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.  He is before all things and in Him all things hold together...He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have supremacy.  For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in Heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross,” Colossians 1:15-17, 19 & 20.

It has been suggested that the seven “I AM” phrases in John equate God’s declaration to Moses, “I AM,” Exodus 3:5, 14.  I believe this is true.  He behaved as God, casting out demons and commanding them to be silent whenever they tried to reveal His identity.  He forgave sin and was worshiped as a result.  Normal human beings do not have the power to forgive sin; we are laden with sin ourselves.  We can only forgive those who wrong us, but we cannot cancel sin.  He spoke with authority, as the literal Word of God and not simply quoting it.  He proved He was God day by day, doing miracles, raising Lazarus from the dead and finally rising from the dead Himself.

You, like every person who is presented with the evidence, must make a decision for yourself:  Is Jesus Lord or not?  Is He God or not?  Can someone who is not God rise from the dead?

Regarding worship of Jesus:

Two of Jesus’ disciples were brothers.  In Matthew 20:20-28 their mother comes to Jesus with her sons beside her and kneels before Him. “
“What is it you want?”  Jesus asked.  
She said, “”Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”  
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them.  “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”  (Jesus is referring to His crucifixion and the burden of sin He would be bearing.)  
“We can,” they answered.  
Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from My cup, (meaning that eventually each of them would die preaching Jesus crucified and raised from the dead) but to sit at My right or left is not for Me to grant.  These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by My Father.”  
When the (other) ten (disciples) heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers.  Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you.  Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus did not command anyone worship Him while He was on the earth.  As God in human form, He came as a Servant to show God’s Love and to pay for sin. Often, after Jesus had healed someone, He would ask the person not to tell anybody what He had done.  When He cast demons out of people the demons would say that He was the Son of God, but He would command them to be silent and they would obey.  He came in humility, emptying Himself of the glory He had in Heaven to take on human form.  His purpose was to glorify the Father in humility and obedience, to show the Father’s love and to pay for sin.  

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a Man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!  Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every Name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” Philippians 2:5-11

Hebrews 2:14, 15 & 17:  “Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil--and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death...For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way...”

Jesus did not command anyone to worship Him or even ask for it, but those who understood His purpose and understood Who He was, chose to worship Him and He did not stop them.  

When Jesus walked on the water in Matthew 14:25-33, the disciples first thought He was a ghost and were terrified, but when they heard His voice, “Take courage!  It is I, Don’t be afraid,” verse 27, they were comforted.  Peter got out of the boat and managed to walk a few steps on the water as long as his eyes were on Jesus, but when he took notice of the storm and the waves, he sank and the Lord had to pull him out.  When they were all in the boat together, they worshiped Him saying, “Truly you are the Son of God,” verse 33.

The priests interrogated a blind man Jesus healed in John 9.  The formerly blind man said to them, “...You don’t know where He (Jesus) comes from, yet He opened my eyes.  We know that God does not listen to sinners.  He listens to the godly man who does His will.  Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, He could do nothing,” verses 30-33.  The priests threw the man out.  
Jesus found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  
“Who is He sir?” the man asked.  “Tell me so that I may believe in Him.”  
Jesus said, “You have now seen Him; in fact, He is the One speaking with you.”  
Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped Him.  

Mary, the sister of Lazarus, the man Jesus raised from the dead, worshiped Him, pouring expensive perfume on his feet and wiping it off with her hair, John 11:2.

Now that He has returned to the Father, He has regained everything He lost when He submitted Himself to take on human form.  He is once again glorified.

In Revelation 1:12-18, John the Apostle sees the Lord Jesus restored to glory.  He describes the risen Lord as wearing a robe as white as snow in the sunlight, His eyes blazing fire, His feet like molten bronze and His voice like rushing waters.  His face “was like the sun shining in all its brilliance,” verse 16.  John says, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead.  Then He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid.  I am the First and the Last.  I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever.  And I hold the keys of death and Hades,” verses 17 & 18.

In Revelation 4 John is taken to God’s throne room where he sees the Father upon His throne.  In chapter 5 the Lord Jesus arrives appearing as the Lamb of God.  As God’s sacrifice to pay for human sin Jesus IS the Lamb of God.  In verse 11 & 12 angels encircle God’s throne and say, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”  Next, John hears every creature in Heaven and in the earth and on the sea sing, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever!” verse 13.

I worship Him because He has freed me from sin, because He gives my life purpose, because He fills me with His love and joy, because He is wonderful and because He is God.  We are to worship only God and Jesus is God; He said, “I and the Father are One.”  You must examine your heart and determine for yourself, is Jesus God?  Could someone who is not God raise a person from the dead or come back from the dead Himself?  

Like the angels in the throne room in Revelation 5, I worship Him because He is worthy.  He has earned my worship.
  



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: dear Marliyn.
thanks for your lengthy explanation about Jesus , i do respect what you have said . but this is not a prooving that jesus said i am God and Worship me ....
as you are aware that jesus didn't write the Gospel during his life. but it was written after his death as christian alleged 100 years later by pouls, and not in Jesus Language " ARAMIC" whuch could be a lot of changes adding and omitting words, misinterpretation ,interboltion ...
happened by people ..do you agree with me ...

so that means we can not consider the Bible today is fully a word of God. but we can say some of it....after many changes in different languages.

if you read Mathew 19 : 16-17.
one came and said unto him Jesus "Good master . what good thing shall i do,that i may have eternal life?
And he said unto gim ,why callest thou me good? there is no none good but one ,that is God. But if thou will enter into life. keep the Commandments.

you can read the Mose's 10 Commandments ..

if you analyse that before Jesus theer was no christinaity & before Moses there was no Judaism. so in general that means all Prophets they were following the Monothiastic Abrahimic Faith ....which means full submission to the almighty God * obeying his commandments .
to worhsip one God the Creator he is the only Savior for us ...not the Prophets ...
for your information we are all creation of God ALLAH or ELI or ELOHIM or JUHVA is all same name for the creator...
he has created the Mankind i four Models..he created ADAM without father and mother . then he created EVE from ADAM but no mother , then we came from both Parents..then finally he created JESUS from Virgin Mary but No father .. which means that not one of these has any superiority on each another.

God almighty has vreated Jesus like ADAM from dust then he siad be and it was.

we Do respect Mary and Jesus peace be upon them both . but we can not take them to the level of Divinty as God is more superior than his creatures. and all his creation is seperated from him ... we are humbeing ..whatever God has given the Prophets of Miracles this done by the permission of God ,otherwise they can not do anything ...eventhough our beloved prophets has shown many miracles during his time . but it dosn't means he is something superior...he told us don't worship me but worship God Almighty.

read Deut. 18:18   this wil give indicator that there was a prophecy from God to Moses that a comforter will come adovcator ..this is referring to Prophet Muhammad .


should you have any further question please let me know.

many thanks  

Answer
Hello Aziz;

God is able to keep His Word through numerous translations, if He cannot, then He is not Almighty.  The early Christians fully expected Jesus' return immediately, so they made no effort to write down the Gospels they memorized and retold to one another until it was obvious that "soon" to God is not the same as "soon" to human beings--then they wrote their accounts down.  As above--God is able to keep His Word.  

Recall, Paul in a Scripture I quoted in a previous post, wrote that Jesus emptied Himself of His equality with the Father.  In Matthew 19:16 & 17, Jesus replies as He must as a human being.  Jesus took on human form to pay for sin--a human, Adam, having brought sin to humanity, a human must pay for it.  Jesus emptied Himself to become that Human and pay for sin.  Until He'd finished His task, endured the cross and rose from the dead, He could not claim divinity.  It would have been presumptuous for a Human, even the Son of God to claim divinity--it would have been a sin.  Human beings are not God.  Jesus clearly says, "keep the commandments," and that is precisely what Jesus the Son of God was doing!  He proved He was God by persisting in a sinless obedience to the position God had called Him to fill.  No other reply was acceptable.

The prophecy you give was given to those who received the Ten Commandments--the people who would become the Jews.  Deuteronomy 18:18:  "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him."  

Mohammed was not the "exact representation of the Father," he sinned.  Jesus is the exact representation of the Father and never sinned.  Jesus always said that He spoke only the Words the Father told Him to speak, as this prophecy said He would.  And He was "from the brethren," from the people who received the Law.  Mohammed was not from these brethren.

Elohim is the Name translated God found in Genesis 1:1.  Elohim is a plural Name indicating a minimum of Three in One.  Allah is singular.  Allah has no sons.  Elohim and Allah are not one in the same.

From the Koran:  4.157:  "And their saying: Surely we have killed the Messiah, Isa son of Marium, the apostle of Allah; and they did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but it appeared to them so (like Isa) and most surely those who differ therein are only in a doubt about it; they have no knowledge respecting it, but only follow a conjecture, and they killed him not for sure."

The Koran is wrong about this:  Jesus was crucified.  And Jesus rose from the dead.  As mentioned above, His apostles, eye witnesses to all that happened, all died, save one, preaching Jesus crucified and raised from the dead.  People will die for a cause they believe in, but nobody will die for something he knows to be a lie.

Jesus did not literally say, "I am God," because while a human that would have been sin.  But He proved He was God by His Words and actions and by rising from the dead.  Without proof, words are only nonsense, but proof given without obvious words is proof enough.

May God grant you revelation knowledge;

Marilyn