Is Jesus God?

A Fundamental belief of Christianity is that Jesus Christ is God. To state the matter more completely, Christianity historically has taught that Jesus Christ is the eternal, divine Son, fully and completely God in nature and status, and that he humbled himself to become a man in order to die on the cross and rise from the dead for our redemption. This belief derived from the teachings of the New Testament, was affirmed explicitly in the Nicene Creed (4th century) and the Definition of Chalcedon (5th century), and is officially taught by the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, by all of the major branches of Protestantism (Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians and Reformed, Baptists, and Methodists), and by the largest Pentecostal and charismatic churches (Assemblies of God, Calvary Chapels). Not all religious groups identifying themselves as Christians agree that Jesus is God. Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many other such groups espouse different beliefs about who and what Jesus is. Islam, though not a Christian religion, recognizes Jesus as a great prophet but denies that he is divine. All of these religions challenge the traditional Christian view of Jesus Christ as God incarnate. In addition, skeptics consider the belief that Jesus was God to be myth. Christians have nothing to fear from these challenges to what we believe about Christ. If Jesus is God as Christianity historically has taught, then we should find that the evidence supports this belief. On the other hand, if the evidence were to show that Jesus was not God, we would certainly want to know it. So then, let’s take a careful look at this question.