To Encourage You

Hebrews 1:5-10 “For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’? Or again, ‘I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to me a Son’? And again, when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship Him.’ Of the angels he says, ‘He makes his angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.’ But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness beyond Your companions.’ And, ‘You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of Your hand; they will perish, but You remain . . . Your years will have no end.’”

One of the distinguishing characteristics of any cult (i.e., a religion that claims to be “Christian” but which denies many of the central tenets of Biblical Christianity) or false religion is that they will all deny the deity of Jesus Christ.  While they may use terms such as “deity” in referring to Christ, they are not using that term to mean One Who is equal with God the Father. He is “less than” God the Father, as a result, in such teachings. 

The Mormons, for example, believe that Jesus is a spiritual brother of Lucifer, who is an angel. Thus, they place Jesus on par with an angel.  Nor do they believe in the Trinity.  While they believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate beings, they do not believe these beings are also “one.” They also believe that the Father has a physical body, and that their founder, Joseph Smith, once saw him. However, this is not what the Scriptures teach, i.e., that God the Father is a Spirit (John 4:24), a being that no one has ever seen (John 1:18).

The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the archangel Michael is the same being as Jesus. Like the Mormons, they deny the eternality of Jesus. They believe that Jesus is a created being.  In other words, He is a creature and not God.  Like the Mormons, they reject the idea of the Trinity. 

In Islam, again there is no such thing as a Trinity. Allah is wholly distinct from Jesus Christ.  In fact, Jesus is only a prophet in Islam. He is not God.  And while other religions and cults may skirt around the denial that “Jesus is God” in other ways, in each and every case they are alike in this denial. They may call Jesus “a god” or “the son of god,” or a being who has characteristics of deity, but he is not the eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent Creator of the universe Who is the exact imprint of the radiance and nature of God, which is how the Bible, and in particular the book of Hebrews, describes Him. 

As one example, in the passage above Jesus is described as far superior to the angels.  He is the One the angels fall down to and worship.  Then, in a quote from Psalm 45, we are told that that particular Psalm, which says “your throne O God, is forever and ever” is referring specifically to “the Son,” i.e., it is referring to Jesus as God. Then when it says “therefore God, your God, has anointed you . . .” it is alluding to the oneness of the Father and the Son within the Trinity, in that “your God” is referring to the Father, while the title “God” has also referred to the Son.  And when the passage says “You, Lord laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,” the fact that He already was “in the beginning” and that “Your years will have no end,” refers to Jesus’ eternal nature as the Creator, which is just another distinction from the “Jesus” the cults and false religions refer to. 

You see, just because someone uses the word “Jesus” to describe a being who may have a prominent position in that religion’s belief system, it does not mean that that “Jesus” is the same “Jesus” who is the Savior of all true Christians. If the “Jesus” they worship is not the same Jesus the Bible tells us about from beginning to end, it is “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4) and a “different gospel” (Galatians 1:6).  As the Bible warns us clearly through the words of the apostle Paul, “if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8-9). 

So, is the “Jesus” you think you know about the true Jesus of the Scriptures, or is that Jesus a being who is much less, a false Christ of a false religion or cult?  You see, Satan doesn’t care if you call him, “Jesus,” as he so subtly works to damn your soul.