{"id":6106,"date":"2014-04-01T05:50:53","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T09:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?p=6106"},"modified":"2016-04-18T15:18:43","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T19:18:43","slug":"do-the-gospels-disagree-about-jesus-and-god-part-1-three-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/do-the-gospels-disagree-about-jesus-and-god-part-1-three-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Do the Gospels disagree about Jesus and God? Part 1 – Three Options"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"threeLet’s define “Jesus is God”<\/strong> to mean one or more of these: Jesus is numerically identical to the one God, YHWH, or<\/em> Jesus fully possesses the divine nature of the one God, or<\/em> Jesus is one “divine person” within the one God.<\/p>\n

The New Testament gospels<\/strong> are centrally concerned with Jesus, and with the one God. But how do they relate the two – or the one – of them together? The reflective reader has three options; she must deny one<\/strong> of these three:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The New Testament gospels agree in their core claims about Jesus and God.<\/li>\n
  2. Matthew, Mark, and Luke don\u2019t teach that Jesus is God.<\/li>\n
  3. John teaches that Jesus is God.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Observe how weak 1 is. It doesn’t require belief in inerrancy, or even in any sort of inspiration for these writings. \u00a01 doesn’t even say that the NT gospels agree in all their claims, or in all their teachings, or in all their historical claims, but only in their core claims about the man Jesus, and about the one God. That is what one would expect, if the gospels really emanated from the broad circles of the apostles in the first century. Note also that 1 is consistent with, but doesn’t require, belief in the traditional authorship of the gospels.<\/p>\n

    Two recent books<\/a> highlight two of the three ways to respond<\/strong> to this problem.<\/p>\n