The Deity of Christ

A most important subject of Bible doctrine is the Deity of Christ.

To study this subject from the Bible you cannot simply use a concordance! That is because the word “deity” is not used as such in the Bible text. Certainly the word is not used in the KJV translation of the Bible.

If you are fortunate enough to own a copy of The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, its indexes are a goldmine of information about what the Bible teaches about the Deity of Christ.

I just posted the following information in the Logos Forums in answer to how to search for the subject of the Deity of Christ using Logos software:

I always am the late-comer when it comes to reading forums, answering questions!

I have as part of my Logos library my own book, The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Because the Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the deity of Christ I placed much material in my book on the subject, for I studied with them for four years straight. My notes can be accessed by consulting the Subject Index entry, “Jehovah’s Witnesses: Answers to Doctrinal Errors,” on page 1562. The third numbered point in that index outline pertains to the Deity of Christ, Colossians 1:16 note; (a) Christ received worship, Matthew 14:33; John 20:29 note; Acts 7:59 note. (b) Lesser degrees of worship untenable, Philippians 2:6 note. (c) Not a lesser “god,” John 1:1 note; Philippians 2:6 note. (d) Called God, John 20:28 note. (e) Charge of blasphemy for claim to deity, John 10:32 note. (f) Deity required to qualify as our substitute in the atonement, Hebrews 10:4 note.

Also in the Subject Index on page 1554 is the entry, “Deity of Christ, 1 Peter 2:3 note.”

Further material will also be found in the Subject Index on page 1551 under “Christ’s Divinity,” with ten lines of further entries under that heading which I won’t reproduce here.

I lived in south-west Detroit on the corner of Fort Street and Hubbard. It was an easy bicycle ride in those days to Dearborn, where there was and is a large Muslim community. I was in contact with that community because at that time I not only sponsored the Bible Discussion Club but also the Comparative Religions Club at Cass Technical High School where I taught English. The Jewish students who asked me to sponsor their Comparative Religions Club asked my permission to invite a Muslim speaker to speak to the club, and I readily gave my permission. The man who came was then the head of the Islamic Center in Dearborn. I bought his book at the time, and he autographed it for me. My brother had more direct contact with the Muslims than I did. He influenced me to place a note at John 3:16 pertaining to the keywords only begotten son (KJV), because the concept of that sonship is little spoken of and largely not understood by ordinary Bible readers, and is a major point of difference with what Muslims are taught about Jesus. So I would encourage those here that might be interested in such matters to carefully study that note.

My book is no longer available in print, but it is available in Logos software. I thought it might help someone to know there is more in my book than what is advertised. Sometimes I enter into discussions or create posts at my Real Bible Study site where I answer questions and share how to use my cross reference Bible study resources more effectively. [End of my actual post]

I just learned yesterday that the price for a printed copy of The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge ranges from nearly $100 to almost $500 a copy. So, if you happen to have one, I hope you will take good care of it and not lose it. I had many copies stolen from me when I first had copies myself for sale. I trust that wherever those copies might be now, that the Lord is blessing their use to those who may now possess them.

The Muslims claim God cannot have a Son. Well, their false god probably does not have a son indeed, no quibble there. But the Jehovah of the Bible clearly does have a Son, mentioned in the Old Testament (Psalm 2:7; Proverbs 30:4). God also publically declared that Jesus Christ is His beloved Son, in whom He was well-pleased (see Matthew 3:17).

The Muslims sometimes claim that the Bible has been changed, and does not say now what it did when it was originally written. Nonsense. The text of the Bible in its original manuscripts varies very little from the oldest manuscript copies to our modern printed Greek and Hebrew Bibles. Such claims by some Muslims are therefore not grounded on fact, but contrary to fact.