Based on Pocket handbook of Christian apologetics (2003) by Peter Kreeft & Ronald Tacelli. This is a course taught at LTCi, Siliguri.

1. The Divinity
of Christ
Pocket handbook of
Christian Apologetics
Chapter 8
Peter Kreeft & Ronald Tacelli

2. There is a problem when looking at the
identity of Jesus Christ - we look at the
Gospels (all 4 of them) - and a
shockingly strong claim is made.
Jesus called himself the “Son of God”
- he claimed to have the same nature
as God and called God his Father.
Jn 10:30, 14:9
I and the Father are one.”
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.

3. Jesus claimed to be sinless:
Jn 8:46 Can any of you prove me
guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth,
why don’t you believe me?
Lk 5:21 The Pharisees and the
teachers of the law began thinking
to themselves, “Who is this fellow
who speaks blasphemy? Who can
forgive sins but God alone?”
Only the one who is offended by sin
can claim the right to forgive - and
ultimately that has to be God.

4. Jesus claimed to save us from sin
and death:
Jn 11:25
Jesus said to her, “I am the
resurrection and the life. The one
who believes in me will live, even
though they die;
Matt 25:31-46
Jesus claimed he would return at
the end of the age to judge all of us.
Jn 6:51
I am the living bread that came
down from heaven. Whoever eats
this bread will live forever.

5. Jesus changed Simon’s name to
Peter - something that for a Jew only
God could do - a name revealed
your true identity which was given by
God alone.
Jn 1:42
Jesus looked at him and said, “You
are Simon son of John. You will be
called Cephas” (which, when
translated, is Peter).
In the OT God alone changed names
- and with them destinies - Abram,
Sarai, Jacob - illegal name changing
resulted in excommunication for
orthodox Jews.

6. Jesus kept pointing at
himself and telling people to
come to him - Matt 11:28.
Buddha said, “Look not to
me: look to my dharma
(doctrine),” he also said “Be
lamps unto yourselves” -
Jesus said, “I am the light of
the world” - Jn 8:12
Lao Tzu taught the way (tao);
Jesus said, “I am the way”
Jn 14:6

7. Buddha, Confucius and
Muhammad fulfilled no prophecies,
did no miracles, and did not rise
from the dead.
Jesus did all of these.
Jesus invited death (by stoning or
crucifixion) by saying Jn 8:58 NLT
Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth,
before Abraham was even born, I
AM!”
Or before Abraham was even born,
I have always been alive;Greek
reads before Abraham was, I am.

8. The importance of the issue
1. The issue of the divinity of Christ
is a distinctively Christian one - a
Christian has to be defined as
someone who believes this.
2. This is the key to unlocking many
other doctrines within the Christian
faith - many are believed on the
basis of the divine authority of
Christ who taught them, so that
they are written in the Bible and
taught in the church.

9. If Christ was only human he could have
made mistakes - therefore if you want to
disagree with Christ this is a good point
to argue against! Note that there are
teachings which probably all of us find
hard and might want to disagree with.
Kreeft states, “Christians ought to
realise how difficult, how scandalous,
how objectionable, how apparently
unbelievable and absurd this doctrine
is bound to appear to others.”
Note here: we as believers are very
familiar with it so we find it far easier to
believe.

10. Clues to the possibility of this doctrine
Kreeft offers six clues
which are designed to talk
of the possibility of God
becoming man - in the
following section we shall
see how this happened in
Jesus.

11. 1. CS Lewis calls the incarnation
“myth become fact” - in fact in many
mythologies there are similar ideas of
a god who came down from heaven,
died and rose to life for the life of man
- e.g. Odin, Osiris
[The garden of Eden and the flood
also make similar appearances]
It is argued that because of these
parallels that there cannot be validity
in the Christian story, it is false - Kreeft
suggests the more foreshadowings of
an event the more likely it is to have
occurred / will occur.

12. 2. An analogy from art: an
author writes himself into his
own movie etc. as a character
- the character would have a
double nature (that of the
author and also of the
character they are playing in
the movie) - they have come
down from the heaven of the
authors mind to the earth of the
movie. Alfred Hitchkock was
famous for doing it - if he can,
why can’t God?

13. 3. How does a person who
disagrees with the idea of the
incarnation, saying it is impossible,
tell God what he can or cannot do?
It seems the skeptic is more sure of
them-self than they are of God.
4. If a being worthy of the name
God exists then he would be
omnipotent and able to do anything
that is meaningful and not self
contradictory. Therefore the
incarnation is not a contradiction
(even though it is a miracle) - it is
possible.

14. 5. This is possible not only from the
side of the creator but also the
creature - a human being can be
transformed, taken up into God.
Kreeft suggests this is like subhuman
food being taken up into the human
body, or physical vibrations becoming
spiritual music, or form and colour
becoming art etc. Transformation is a
principle running throughout the world
and evolution would be an example of
it. That said evolution happens by
nature, incarnation by God’s grace.
Kreeft suggests this simply proves
both are possible.

15. 6. The ability of a person to
have two differing natures is
best seen in yourself (a
human being). You can and
cannot be measured in
terms of space - our
physical being and
intellectual or spiritual being
all come out of a single body
(soul and body together). In
Christ we see his human
and divine nature in the
same body.

16. Argument’s for Christ’s divinity
The following are stronger
arguments for the actual event of
the incarnation.
1. Christ’s Trustworthiness
Jesus is seen by (almost) all as a
great teacher, good and wise man.
He is considered to be a very
trustworthy man.
Therefore we have to ask if we can
trust him regarding his own identity?
If not, then he is not good or wise.

17. 2. The impossibility of the
alternative
What is the alternative to saying that
Jesus is God? Jesus claimed to be
God, and he is thought to be
believable, so where do we go from
here?
Considering the fact that Jesus
claimed to be God we have to deal
with a number of possibilities:
a. Do the Gospels lie - and if they
do, why? If they are written by lars
then the result of writing and
following was martyrdom - not a
great motive - liars usually lie for
their own benefit.

18. b. Thousands of others also suffered and died for
their belief - often singing as they were put to
death - has a lie ever transformed the world like
this?
c. What if it wasn’t deliberate lying but simply an
hallucination which took them all in? Jews were
not likely to believe this lie - they had waited for
God and now we are to believe that after they had
been forbidden from worshipping false image they
fall for this, their god becoming a man and being
crucified as a criminal - not likely.

19. b. Thousands of others also suffered and died for
their belief - often singing as they were put to
death - has a lie ever transformed the world like
this?
c. What if it wasn’t deliberate lying but simply an
hallucination which took them all in? Jews were
not likely to believe this lie - they had waited for
God and now we are to believe that after they had
been forbidden from worshipping false image they
fall for this, their god becoming a man and being
crucified as a criminal - not likely.

20. d. What is if was not a
Jewish but a Gentile myth -
how on earth did it get into
the NT then - after all 25 of
the 27 books in the NT are
written by Jews.
e. If anyone had devised
the myth it could not have
propagated in the lifetime
of those who knew and
were with Jesus, for surely
they would have disproved
it.

21. Aquinas suggests that if the
incarnation did not happen
then a bigger, more
unbelievable miracle took
place: the conversion of the
world by the biggest lie in
history and the moral
transformation of lives into
unselfishness, detachment
from worldy pleasures and
radically new heights of
holiness all by a mere myth.

22. Aquinas suggests that if the
incarnation did not happen
then a bigger, more
unbelievable miracle took
place: the conversion of the
world by the biggest lie in
history and the moral
transformation of lives into
unselfishness, detachment
from worldy pleasures and
radically new heights of
holiness all by a mere myth.

23. 3. Lord, liar or lunatic?
The earliest apologists have said
of Jesus, “Either God or a bad
man” - what is more simple?
a. Jesus was either God (if he
did not lie about who he was), or
a bad man (if he did lie about it.
b. But Jesus was not a bad man
c. Therefore Jesus was (is) God.
The bad man idea is not usually
argued with - so we have to deal
with the first idea.

24. 3. Lord, liar or lunatic?
The earliest apologists have said
of Jesus, “Either God or a bad
man” - what is more simple?
a. Jesus was either God (if he
did not lie about who he was), or
a bad man (if he did lie about it.
b. But Jesus was not a bad man
c. Therefore Jesus was (is) God.
The bad man idea is not usually
argued with - so we have to deal
with the first idea.

25. How do we approach this?
If someone claims to be God and is
not he is a bad man - common
sense tells us that!
Jesus could not be merely a good
man - in claiming to be God he
eliminates such possibilities - so he
is a liar who tells lies about who he
is.
For non-Christians it is easier to say
he was a good man - claim he is
bad and you offend Christians,
claim he was God and you offend
other non-Christians.

26. If he wasn’t God, but Jesus
believed his own claim to be God,
then he has to be a lunatic.
The “divinity complex” is a well
known form of psychopathology -
its symptoms include, egotism,
narcissism, inflexibility, dullness,
predictability, inability to
understand and love others -
basically such people are the
opposite of Jesus. In fact Jesus
showed wisdom,love and
creativity - all opposites of this
complex.

27. If Jesus was a liar then he had to be
one of the greatest ever to have
walked on planet Earth - on a basic
level to convince people to give up
their eternal destiny through his lies
is a terrible act. He would have to be
the biggest, baddest liar ever!
But what if the disciples
invented the lie?
1. The disciples do not show
symptoms of being pathological liars
2. What was their motive - they got
suffering and death, just like Jesus.

28. 3. They could not have known this
would be successful as all Jews
would be horrified at the nature of
the lie and its blasphemy.
What if the disciples were
lunatics?
1. The Gospels write of one of the
most compelling people in history -
not the work of madmen. It would
be hard for a madman to write one
chapter let alone all of them

29. 2. How could such lunacy change for the
better the lives of so many people?
3. What accounts for the origin of the
lunacy? How do we account for the original
deception in all of it?

30. Motives for unbelief
In the light of all this, why do so many not
believe?
1. No rational reason - even when the
arguments have been refuted their is no
rational explanation for why some refuse
to believe.
2. Often christ is not rejected but
Christians - people do not like what
christians look like.
3. Fear - of the church, its authority and
its teachings scares people away. The
church makes demands just like Jesus
did - it is not comfortable.

31. 4. Moral reluctance - if you accept
Jesus then all areas of your life are
challenged (and should be changed)
by his teaching - sex, drugs,
morality, selfishness, wrong morals
etc. All “sin” comes under this
challenge - a surgeon will remove all
cancer, Jesus challenges it all and
demands it removed - Christ comes
to kill sin in our life.
5. People are sometimes afraid of
the mysterious and uncontrollable -
God who is incarnate is not neat or
comfortable.

32. 6. Pride - we refuse to relinquish
control of our lives
7. Belief in Jesus is intellectually
unfashionable
8. Equality - to believe Jesus is the
only way then says all religions are
not equal - not a popular way of
thinking - and one that demands a
response of choice.
These are not logical arguments
which prove unbelief - they simply
explain subjective, psychological
unbelief.