The Amish Voice 9
In these days the queston arises more fre-
quently than ever before. Recently when the
“World’s Squarest Teenagers’ was shown on
Britsh TV, their visit to a mosque had the
statement from a Mosque leader to the
Amish teenagers that they didn’t believe
Jesus was the son of God, but a prophet.
When Jesus asked his disciples in Mathew
16:15, who they said He was, Peter replied:
And Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the liv-
ing God
.
And Jesus answered and said
unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
Barjona: for fesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father
which is in heaven.
18
And I say also
unto thee, That thou art Peter, and up-
on this rock I will build my church; and
the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. —Mathew 16:17-18
Here is the foundaton rock of where the
church is anchored; that is the frm belief
that Jesus is Christ or Messiah, the son of
God. Without this truth, everything we know
about salvaton falls apart. Our hope totally
lies in His ability to deal with our sin. Take
away this truth and the entre church’s
eforts at explaining salvaton are rendered
useless. Jesus is only a prophet? That takes
out the foundaton stone of Christanity.
Now when I was young, I was taught that
Jesus Christ is the son of God. My father and
grandfather before that believed it. That is a
good thing. However, that does not tell me
why that is true. What I aim to do is show
how any of us can fnd a base for that belief.
We really believe Jesus was actually the son
of God. And we need to say so to an unbe-
lieving world. To a Muslim, or an unbeliever
the statement seems far-fetched, even blas-
phemous. Indeed, the statements made by
Jesus were either true or totally ofensive.
How can we tell the diference?
When a person comes to our country and
claims to be sent by the ofcial government
of Germany, we need to check their creden-
tals. This can be done by a phone call to the
foreign afairs department of Germany and
asking whether they sent so and so. Also,
Germany might have sent advance notce
that the diplomat was coming.
No person ever can by his own insistence
assure you of his ofcial status. If for in-
stance a doctor said he was a doctor, but
had no valid certfcate, he would soon be
removed from his ofce. Someone higher up
has to say and certfy the person is a doctor,
or we simply have an imposter. Who then,
can validate Jesus as the Son of God? Obvi-
ously, only the Father.
The frst indicaton of a coming Messiah is
found in Genesis 3:15.
And I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy
seed
and her
seed
; it shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
The word “seed” is singular in the Genesis
renditon. One person is seed, whereas nu-
merous people would be “seeds.”
Galatans 3; 16 says
, Now to Abraham
and his
seed
were the promises made.
He saith not, And to seeds, as of many;
but as of one, And to thy
seed
, which
is Christ.
This is God telling Adam what is to come
During Old Testament tmes, there were
numerous predictons of a coming messiah.
Isaiah 7:14 says
; Therefore the Lord
himself will give you a sign: The virgin
will be with child and will give birth to
a son, and will call him Immanuel.
This is like a foreign naton announcing the
coming of an important person so we will
not miss him. To ft the criteria, the Prom-
ised Redeemer had to be born of a virgin.
This is God speaking through Isaiah
Luke chapter 1 tells us of the angel an-
nouncing the birth of Jesus to his moth-
er Mary. Angels are messengers from
God. He said; “
You will be with child and
give birth to a son, and you are to give
him the name Jesus. He will be great and
will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of
his father David,
and he will reign over
the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom
will never end."
This is God speaking
through angels.
Luke 3;21-22 says;
Now when all the
people were baptzed, it came to pass,
that Jesus also being baptzed, and pray-
ing, the heaven was opened, And the
Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape
like a dove upon him, and a voice came
from heaven, which said, Thou art my
beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
Here you have a voice (God) from heav-
en telling us Jesus is His son. This also
happened in the transfguraton.
Mathew 17 verses 5 says;
While He yet
spake, behold, a bright cloud overshad-
owed them: and behold a voice out of
the cloud, which said, This is my be-
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased;
hear ye him.
Now we have God Himself speaking to the
issue. Mathew was an apostle that was with
Jesus throughout his ministry. Mark also
records this in the same way in Mark 9; 2.
Mark was not an apostle, but lived in the
same tme frame as Jesus. Mathew’s ac-
count is frst hand experience, not hearsay.
Next we have Jesus himself saying to
Peter in Mathew 16;13-17:
When Jesus
came to the region of Caesarea Philippi,
he asked his disciples, "Who do people
say the Son of Man is?"
They replied,
“Some say John the Baptst; others say
Elijah; and stll others, Jeremiah or one
of the prophets.” But what about you?”
he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Si-
mon Peter answered, “You are the
Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus
replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of
Jonah, for this was not revealed to you
by man, but by my Father in heaven
.
Then when Jesus was being tried before
Caiaphas, the high priest, he stated under
charge of oath the following:
Mathew 26;63b-64:
...But Jesus re-
mained silent. The high priest said to
him, “I charge you under oath by the
living God: Tell us if you are the Christ,
the Son of God.” “
Yes, it is as you say
,”
Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In
the future you will see the Son of Man
sitng at the right hand of the Mighty
One and coming on the clouds of heav-
en.”
Next issue of the Amish Voice: the reason
why this doctrine is so important.
Eli Stutzman — Ontario Canada
Phone: (519) 866-3737
Is Jesus Really God?
—Eli Stutzman