Apologetics315 Podcast - The Deity of Christ with Robert Bowman

Posted by on

 


On this recent edition of the Apologetics315 Podcast, Brian Auten and I chat with Dr. Robert Bowman his latest book The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense, co-authored with J. Ed Komoszewski.  During the interview, we explore the evidence for the deity of Christ and how believers can be equipped to explain this core doctrine.  

Central to their case for the deity of Christ is the acronym HANDS - an effective and easy-to-remember way to categorize the lines of argument for the deity of Christ found in the New Testament.  It can be summarized as follows:

H — Honors

Jesus receives divine honors such as worship, prayer (e.g., Maranatha—“O Lord, come,” a prayer used by the earliest Jewish Christians in Aramaic), and glory. He also commands his disciples to love him more than their parents, which, in an honor–shame culture, places him at the level of God.

A — Attributes

Jesus possesses divine attributes, including eternality (he is not a created being) and omniscience (he knows the hearts of people in order to judge them justly). At the same time, he truly possesses human attributes through the Incarnation.

N — Names

Jesus is given divine names such as God (used sparingly but significantly), Lord (in the Old Testament sense of Yahweh/Jehovah), Savior, and the First and the Last. After the resurrection, Thomas addresses Jesus as “my Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

D — Deeds

Jesus performs deeds that, within Jewish monotheism, belong to God alone. These include creating all things, forgiving sins on his own authority (not merely as a delegate), casting out demons and healing with direct, effortless authority (unlike the apostles, who act in Jesus’ name), and judging humanity at the end of the age.

S — Seat of God’s Throne

Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of God the Father, ruling over all creation from the very throne room of God. His exaltation is presented in Scripture as the crowning point of the case for his deity.

The force of this argument lies not in any single point taken in isolation, but in the cumulative weight of all five. Together, they argue that Jesus must be God, since no created being is permitted to receive divine honors, possess divine attributes, bear divine names, perform divine deeds, and sit upon God’s throne. Importantly, these elements are not artificially imposed on the text; they appear coordinated within single passages of Scripture, such as Matthew 28:16–20, John 1:1–18, and Colossians 1:12–20.

To listen to the entire interview, go here.

To get a copy of the book, go here. 

To learn more about Dr. Bowman and his wonderful work, go here.

Courage and Godspeed,
Chad

Comments

Post a Comment