Jesus, a Jew (monotheistic), accepted worship.
Jesus received worship because he was and is more than a mere model of faith — He was and is the author and object of our faith!
✔️Claimed pre-existence before Abraham (John 8),
✔️Claimed the authority to forgive sin (Mark 2),
✔️Claimed that His words were/are equal with the Ten Commandments (Matthew 19:16-22),
✔️Displayed authority over the weather (Mark 4),
✔️Claimed to be the divine Son of Man prophesied by Daniel (Mark 14).
A Sample of Early Eyewitness Documentation:
“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” Matthew 4:10 (~AD 30-33) 📕
“And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,” Luke 24:52📕
“Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” John 20:28📕
A Sample of Early Christian (extra-biblical) Attestation:
“Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth…and to us with you, and to all those under heaven who will yet believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead.”
— Polycarp, disciple of John (AD 69-155). [1]
“For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary according to God’s plan, both from the seed of David and of the Holy Spirit.”
— Ignatius, disciple of John (AD 50-117) [1]
A Sample of Early Non-Christian Attestation:
“The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day,–the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account…” — Lucian of Samosata, Greek satirist (AD 166). [2]
Logical Conclusion:
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” — C.S. Lewis [3]
1. Tim Barnett; Nine Early Church Fathers Who Taught Jesus Is God: https://lnkd.in/gGGvHFB2
2. The Death of Peregrine, 11-13. Online: http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:essays:peregrine
3. Mere Christianity https://a.co/d/01F0Hdug
Recommended resources:
1.) ESV Study Bible https://a.co/d/03VRC0pg
2.) The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense; Bowman & Komoszewski https://a.co/d/07iHDqif
3.) Did Jesus Really Say He Was God? Making Sense of His Historical Claims; Mikel Del Rosario https://a.co/d/027Yj88N
4.) Top Ten Historical References to Jesus Outside of the Bible https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2022/11/18/top-ten-historical-references-to-jesus-outside-of-the-bible/
Hold Fast Apologetics 