Hiawassee reader challenges CBF presenter's comments

This is in response to BP writer David Roach’s article “CBF presenter questions Christ’s deity at General Assembly” in the July 3 edition of The Index.

In the article John Killinger states “I find from pastors a greater and greater reluctance to preach from the Gospel of John, which used to be the greatest pleasure for most preachers because John was so assertive about the incarnation and the role of Christ.” Killinger went on to say “Now we’re approaching everything with a humbler perspective and seeing God’s hand working in Christ, but not necessarily as the incarnate God in our midst.”

I would argue that the deity of Jesus is a central tenet of the New Testament. Was Jesus really the incarnate God? According to the Apostle Paul, the answer is clearly Yes.

In his letter to the Colossian Christians, Paul described Jesus as the “image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” and said that “by [Jesus] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth...that He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Col. 1:15-16). In the same letter, Paul wrote: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9). In his letter to Timothy, Paul stated that Jesus will “judge the living and the dead,” which is clearly the role of God Himself (II Timothy 4:1).

Paul’s letter to the church at Rome repeatedly declares Jesus to be “Lord” and the primary person in the redemption of mankind from their sins. That Paul saw Jesus as God is made even clearer as he tells the church at Rome that a personal confession of the risen Christ is the necessary means of salvation (Rom. 10:9-10).

Clearly, Paul taught that Jesus was God. I guess the next step for Killinger will be to urge pastors to begin dismissing the letters of Paul because he too stresses that Jesus is the incarnate “God in our midst.”

Finally, if we are wrong in teaching that Jesus is God, then He must have been wrong in allowing people to worship him. Jesus himself said, “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only” (Matt. 4:10). Why would Jesus say this at the start of his ministry and then spend his ministry allowing people to worship Him?