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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
The answer to this question is found by first understanding the reason why John wrote his gospel. We find his purpose clearly stated in John 20:30-31. "Many other signs therefore Jesus also perform...
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Tega Edafiogho
Let me tell y'all who Christ is to the Christian. Christians don't believe that Jesus is God's creation; God did not say "let there be a Jesus" and there was a Jesus. Rather, we believe Jesus is the Word of God. The bible says in John1:1 that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and that the word was God. This word of God refers to the voice of God. There is no way God could have created His own voice, because to create, God voiced it out. If there was no voice, there would be no voice to create the voice, therefore the voice of God is God, because whatsoever is uncreated is God. Verse 14 of John 1 tells us that the word became (not created) a human being and dwelt among us. So Jesus is God because he is the uncreated Word (voice) of God.
DEAN R. DONAHUE
These words written by John summate the method by which God would save His lost creation. It was by His word that all was created and it was by His word that man should live and believe. The main theme John seems to continue exploring in his writings is the necessity to believe in Jesus. Jesus will eventually say to Thomas, known as the doubter, that blessed is he that BELIEVES having never seen Him. Yet, the verses hold for us a meaning that if we look closely, Jesus can be seen quite clearly. If Jesus is the Word, and the Word is the written text found in scripture, it stands to reason that holding scripture is holding the character of Jesus in the manuscript we call the Bible. True, we have not seen the Son of Man with our eyes, but we have seen His Mercy and His Glory depicted in the story told by His disciples. The more you read, the more you see the Character and the Love of Our Creator. Knowing that reading about Him and that this Word is the direct relationship He has to the modern era, stimulates a great reverence for His autobiography. The purpose being to cause us to Believe. John 6:47 states...."he who believes has everlasting life". This is a fact because of this "Word" becoming flesh. Belief in the Word of God is essentially belief in the Son of God. It is that belief that enhances are need to serve and follow the Words of direction He gave to us. True belief causes change. True belief causes pursuit. True belief causes abundance. It is not by happen-chance that the Word brings as John 1:14 puts it, "the Glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of Grace and Truth". The Truth is that the Character of God and His Son can be seen by reading about Him in His Written Word. I find great solace in knowing that when I need to see the Face of God, I need only to open His Word and spend a few moments with Jesus, the Creator, the Author of Love and the Author of the Word. Dean Donahue, Show Low, Arizona
Tim Beeker
If you look at Is. 8:20, then you will be able to get a good foundation on what is meant. Study those two things and you will have your answer. :-)
Bob Rutz
John 1:1&14 mean that God spoke to us, saying everything He wanted to say, and then that spoken Word became a baby born to Mary, who lived among us long enough to communicate everything God wanted to tell us... just like He says in Hebrews 1:1-3...
Bruce Lyon
One day a theological storm is likely to erupt over the translation of John 1:1-3 in our standard versions. At present the public is offered a wide range of renderings, from the purely literal to the freely paraphrased. But do these translations represent John’s intention? Have they sometimes served as a weapon in the hands of Christian orthodoxy to enforce the decisions of post-biblical creeds and councils? According to the findings of a recent monumental study of the origin of Christ in the Bible (Karl-Josef Kuschel, Born Before All Time? The Dispute over Christ’s Origin, New York: Crossroad, 1992) Bible-readers instinctively "hear" the text as follows: "In the beginning was Jesus and Jesus was with God and Jesus was God." This understanding of the passage provides a vital support for the traditional doctrine of the Godhead, shared equally by Father and Son from eternity. The Contemporary English Version goes way beyond the Greek and gives us: "The Word was the One who was with God." No doubt, according to that version, that Word means an eternal Son. But why, Kuschel asks, do readers leap from "word" to "Son"? The text reads "In the beginning was the word," not "In the beginning was the Son." The substitution of "Son" for "word" has had dramatic consequences. But the text does not warrant the switch. There is no direct mention of the Son of God until we come to verse 14, where "the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of a unique Son, full of grace and truth." Consider this very remarkable and informative fact: If one had a copy of an English Bible in any of the eight available English versions before the appearance of the King James Version in 1611, one would gain a very different sense from the opening verses of John: "All things were made through it [the word]," not "through him." And so those English versions did not rush to the conclusion, as does the KJV and its followers, that the word was a person before the birth of Jesus. If all things were made through "the word," as an "it," a quite different meaning emerges. The "word" would not be a person existing alongside God, the Father from eternity. The result: one of the main planks of traditional systems about members in the Godhead would be removed. "In the beginning was the word." There is no justification in the original Greek for placing a capital "W" on "word," and turning it into a person. The question is, what would John and his readers understand by "word"? Quite obviously there are echoes of Genesis 1:1, 3: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and God said [using his word], ‘Let there be light.’" "God said" means "God uttered His word," the medium of His creative activity. And so in John 1:1 God expressed His intention, His word, His self-revealing, creative word. But absolutely nothing in the text (apart from the obtrusive capital letter on "word" in our versions) would make us think that God was in company with another person. The word which God spoke was in fact just "the word of God." And one’s word is not another person, obviously. Sensible Bible study would require that we see in the background of John’s thinking what "word" would mean. "Word" had appeared many times in the Hebrew Bible known so well to John and Jesus. On no occasion did "word" ever mean anything other than an utterance, promise, command, etc. Never a personal being. Always the index of the mind — an expression, a word. It would be a serious mistake of interpretation to discard the massively attested meaning of "word" in the Hebrew matrix from which John wrote and attach to it a meaning it never had — a "person," or even "spokesperson." From: http://thefaithofjesus.blogspot.ca/2007/08/john-11-caveat-lector-reader-beware.html
Gerritt Schuitema
I recommend brother Michael’s answer as it is very good. But, I do feel it misses some of the finer nuance of this biblical truth which I will hope to present. As stated elsewhere in this thread, the greek word ‘Logos’, translated as ‘Word’ refers to the thought arisen and the thought communicated. Jesus is ‘the wisdom of God’ and the ‘power of God’ (1 Cor 1:24). Again, the Word Logos setting forth the thought arisen, that is, the very thought and wisdom of God. As God speaks creation itself into existence, so His Word is power. Here, Logos is the thought communicated, and when God speaks, all creation bends and obeys to that which is spoken. Moving on, Jesus himself, throughout the book of John, reiterates and hints and says outright that he is ‘the word of God’ come into the world. We will seek to touch on a few. First, aside from John introducing Jesus as such, we have the close of the first chapter where Jesus claims to be the ladder from Jacob’s vision (Jhn 1:51, Gen 28:12-17). This is rather interesting, as we know that throughout the OT God reveals Himself through His spoken word (Heb 1:1-2). He communicates to people and reveals Himself as the covenant keeping God through the making of promises and bringing them to pass. Jesus is saying, he was the ladder between God and men then, now and will be until the end of all things, for, ‘no one comes to the Father, except through the Son’. This is important, for men ‘believed’ in the ‘Word’ of God in the OT, this, was where their faith was placed, on His Word. Keep this in mind. In chapter three Jesus claims to be ‘the light’ come into the world. Surely, God’s Word is Truth (Jhn 17:17, Ps 33:4) and Light (Ps 119:105). Jesus again hints in Jhn 5:38-40. John 6 starts off with a relevant story, I suggest a deep study of this. This leads into Jesus hinting again in Jhn 6:26-27, and again in Jhn 6:29. In Jhn 6:32-33 he is much more direct and claims it outright in Jhn 6:35. This statement caused the Jews to murmur (John 6:41). Why? Because they know it is written in Deuteronomy 8:3. Consider all the context and that the Jews were commanded to put His words in their heart (Deuteronomy 6:6). And to Michael’s main point, look at how this chapter closes. Like John’s book, it closes with a confession that Jesus is the Son of the living God. That he is the Word of God is exactly why he is THE Son of God. It’s key. This is why Jesus is THE Son of God and why John introduces him as the Word. The Word proceeds from the Father, is breathed out by God. The Word is not created by God, the Word is ‘of God’ (Matt 1:18,20, Luke 1:35). As he is ‘of God’, so he is the One and Only Son of God. True Son, not adopted like us or the angels who are of creation’. As woman is of man and is man, so the Word is of God and is God. In John 16 we see Jesus saying, ‘For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.’ (John 16:27-28). Check the greek. He is saying he comes from the Father as a point of reference, that is, from within the Father (John 1:18). Look at the response of his disciples in reply to this, ‘Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God‘ and his reply ‘Do ye now believe?’ This is why he IS King. This is why he rules over all, for all creation is made through him and for him, and all will obey him. It is scriptural testimony that ‘without him was not one thing made that was made’ (John 1:3). He is not created, he emanates forth from the Father. He is King, he is The Word of God, and all will bend the knee to him and worship him, to the glory of God the Father.
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