Dear Friends:
The time has come for me to get back to why I set up this blog, that is to defend the historical Christian Faith which was once for all delivered to the Saints (Jude 1:3). The late Dr. Walter Martin, the Founder of the Christian Research Institute, once said “Controversy for the Sake of Truth Is a Divine Command.” How right this Christian Scholar was. These words are especially relevant for today’s post-modern society given that much of the culture is seduced by the demonic philosophy called “Relativism.”That being said, let me get on to the business at hand which is to expose some of the heretical teachings of some of the most prominent Ministers in America today. While I am very familiar with these Ministers and much of their teachings, I must say that to hear some of the poison that is spewed out of their mouths, gives me even more incentive to be used of the Holy Spirit to bring attention to these “damnable heresies” that has caused many people the “Shipwreck” of their faith.
I recently heard a talk (you couldn’t possibly call it a sermon) from Creflo Dollar, and the title of the talk is “Jesus Became God.” Yes, you read it right! The talk is about twenty-seven minutes long and Creflo is making every attempt to “Demote” Jesus Christ as just a mere man who later became God. I worked on the structure of this talk and decided that I would tackle it one point at a time. That way, you can get a clear sense of what he was trying to convey, and my refutation of this heresy.
While it is certainly not my intention to just simply be critical of Mr. Dollar, I do not make any apologies for being able to approach his teachings from a “critical thinking” perspective. Moreover, it is vitally important that we examine any teaching through the lens of Scripture. That is the work of a Christian Apologist. The first major point of dollar’s message is “Jesus Didn’t Know that He was the Son of God; He had to Grow into Sonship” . Dollar goes on to cite several Scriptures including the baptism of Jesus account in Luke 3.
There, according to Dollar is where “God confirms to Jesus for the first time at the age of 30 that He was in fact His Son”. The obvious question that must be raised is, is this the truth? Did Jesus live His entire life from childhood to the age of thirty (30) without ever knowing that He was the Son of God? A better question is when exactly did Jesus know that He was the very Son of the living God?
As we look at the Scripture, we’re going to see that Dollar’s assertion that Christ was ignorant of His “Sonship” until His baptism in the Jordan River, and the Father’s subsequent affirmation is utter non-sense! Furthermore, this kind of teaching constitutes what Paul calls “Doctrines of Demons” and “Deceiving Spirits” (1 Timothy 4:1). The fact is Jesus knew that He was the Son of God and that He was Himself God! Let’s examine some Scriptures.
First, I reference Luke 2:41-50. This is the occasion when Jesus and His earthly parents, Joseph and Mary were in Jerusalem for the Annual Feast of the Passover . Jesus was only12 years of age at this point, and yet while his parents were on their way back to Nazareth, Jesus remained behind. The parents discovered that Jesus was not with them and they turned around to go back to Jerusalem to find Him.
They eventually found Him in the Synagogue where He had just confound the so-called Religious Scholars of His day. When they saw Jesus, Mary began to rebuke Him for the way she believed that He had dealt with them. However, Jesus calls her attention to a profound truth that further confirmed to His Mother who He was, that He understood His true identity, and what His Mission on Earth was really about.
He said: “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s Business?” Verse 50 says, “But they (His earthly parents) did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.” This verse clearly shows that Jesus knew who He was and what His mission on earth was all about. He clearly demonstrates this much prior (18 years to be exact) to His baptism at age 30. This one Scripture alone easily debunk’s Mr. Dollar’s foolish assertion that Jesus was ignorant of His identity prior to His baptism.
Second, I reference John 17:1-5. This of course is our Lord’s High Priestly Prayer in which He prays for Himself (vs. 1-5), His disciples (vs. 6-19), and for All Believers (vs. 20-26). While praying for Himself, Jesus points out something of grave importance and it has to do with His relationship to the Father from Eternity Past! He says, “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You Before the World Was.”
Wow! Jesus just blows Creflo Dollar’s foolishness out of the water with this statement. He clearly is saying that His relationship with the Father goes way back even before the world was ever created! This relationship has always been and will always be. It goes back to Eternity Past, which no one can fully understand the full implication of that statement except to say that the Father and Son relationship has no beginning and no ending!
At a later writing, I will speak about The Eternal Sonship of Christ to further debunk Dollar’s false teaching that Christ did not know that He was the Son of God. However, I want to speak further to this issue using the doctrine of the Hypostatic Union. The hypostatic union is the term used to describe how God the Son, Jesus Christ, took on a human nature, yet remained fully God at the same time.
Jesus always had been God (John 8:58; 10:30), but at the Incarnation (John 1:14) Jesus took on human flesh and became a human being. The addition of the human nature to the divine nature is Jesus, the God-man. This is the hypostatic union, Jesus Christ, one Person, fully God and fully man! Let me illustrate it in order that you might see the picture of what I’m saying clearly.
Jesus As God
- He is worshiped (Matt. 2:2, 11; 14:33)
- He is prayed to (Acts 7:59)
- He is the sinless one (1 Pet. 2:22; Heb. 4:15)
- He know all things (John 21:17)
- He gives eternal life (John 10:28)
- All the fullness of Deity dwells in Him (Col. 2:9)
Jesus As Man
- He worshiped the Father (John 17)
- He prayed to the Father (John 17 and many other Scriptures)
- He was tempted (Matt. 4:1; Luke 4:1)
- He grew in wisdom (Luke 2:52)
- He died on the Cross (Rom. 5:8)
- <>He has a body of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39)
To sum this first part up, we have seen just how absurd Mr. Dollar’s statement really is. On next week, we will examine Pastor Dollar’s assertion that “Jesus was not God because He was not Perfect”, but rather, “He grew into Sonship”. I realize that many critics will quickly say, “I don’t believe Pastor Dollar has taught this.” Well, if you feel that way, then I would respectfully ask that you leave me your e-mail or you can contact me, and I will send you a downloaded copy of the actual message and you can hear for yourself what blasphemous teachings that has come out of the mouth of one of the Word of Faith movement most popular teachers.
Blessings to All!
