Daily Bible Nugget #391, John 20:31

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Jerry

The Nugget:

Joh 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

My Comment:

Muslims seem unable to grasp the concept that Christians are monotheists because they believe in only one true God. The difference is, genuine Bible-believing Christians base their knowledge of God on what the Bible itself teaches. We do not gloss over the evidence that demonstrates that there are three, and only three, Persons in the One Godhead. This understanding of the Bible is based upon the rule of Biblical hermeneutics I have chosen to label the Rule of Necessary Inference (See the October 2010 Archives to the right, where I have listed at least 24 all-important rules or guides to correct Biblical interpretation, and for the Rule of Necessary Inference I have supplied some Biblical examples of the application of this Rule).

Muslims are not the only ones who stumble at this profound Biblical truth. The Jews (if they have not carefully studied their Hebrew Scriptures), Oneness Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Unitarians have all failed to understand and believe this Bible doctrine.

But Muslims are in even further error, because, if I understand them correctly, Muslims deny that God has a Son, and therefore do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Yet Muslims claim to believe the Bible. I think the evidence is clear:  the Bible declares Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.

In my on-going discussions with Muslims in the “Islam and Christianity Debate Group,” I furnished the Biblical evidence which fully demonstrates that the very text of the Bible declares repeatedly that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, as follows:

[I was responding to this comment by Farid EL Moustain:

 From the Islamic standpoint, the teachings of all prophets are the same; they all came with the same message: montheism. So in that capacity not only do the Muslims follow the teachings of Muhammed alone, but rather follow the true teachings of Jesus, Moses, Abraham, and David as well. And the fact Jesus never sinned does not make him the Son of God. What I also noticed in this post of yours is that you only referred to Jesus as “Son of God”, and you don’t seem to be alluding to him as being God himself. There seems to be no unanimous consensus among you, Christians, concerning the nature of Christ. Some of you claim that Jesus is the son of God; others believe that he is God, and then others claim that he is both. I find this very puzzling!]

Farid EL Moustain, a careful reading of the New Testament will remove your puzzlement, I’m sure.

 
John the Apostle, the one who wrote the Gospel of John, affirmed towards its close that the purpose he had in writing the Fourth Gospel was “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31).
 
There you have it in plain English, translated from plain Greek, that John affirmed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
 
But John is not the only one.
 
The Angel that announced the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus Christ also used the same language when he said “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:  therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
 
Mark begins his Gospel account with these words:  “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1).
 
After a most decided miracle demonstrating the omnipotence of Jesus Christ when He by His command stilled the storm at sea, we read the reaction of the disciples in the boat, “Then they that were in the boat came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth, thou art the Son of God” (Matthew14:33).
 
When Jesus later asked His disciples, “But whom say ye that I am?” Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).
 
Nathaniel, who immediately perceived the supernatural omniscience of Jesus Christ, asking Jesus, “Whence knowest thou me?” (John 1:48), exclaimed of Jesus Christ, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel” (John 1:49).
 
Later in John’s Gospel, Martha confessed her faith in Jesus Christ, saying “Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world” (John 11:27).
 
That this was the continuing faith and affirmation of the New Testament church is witnessed by Paul’s statement at the opening of his great doctrinal Epistle to the Romans, which states “And declared (or, determined, marginal reading) to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4).
 
It is therefore the universal declaration of the New Testament Scriptures that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
 
Anyone who rejects this clear testimony does not believe the record that God gave of His Son, and is therefore an unbeliever, and worse, any such person is calling God a liar, as John states in his first epistle, “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son” (1 John 5:10).
This entry was posted in Apologetics Issues--Other Faiths, Daily Bible Nuggets, Doctrinal Discussions and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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