For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. 2 Corinthians 11:4
From the time He started His earthly ministry until today people have been uncomfortable with Jesus. Even though they saw the signs and wonders He did, the Pharisees were uncomfortable with Jesus’ teachings and claims to be God. People are so uncomfortable with Jesus they will go to any lengths to change Him into their own image of what He should be.
Non Christian religions cannot ignore Jesus so they change Him to make Him compatible with their teachings. In Islam He is the prophet before Mohammad. Jesus is a man who lived a perfect life, but only a man. To the Mormons He is a god just not the only god and our spiritual brother just as Satan is. Jesus has obtained something every devout Mormon strives for, godhead. To the Buddhist He is a guru a wise sage. To the Hindus he can be a god, what’s one more in a pantheon of thousands of gods of a sage. To the ultra liberal scholars he is either a wise teachers or a construction of the early church fathers.
If we can somehow make Jesus more like us then we can justify what we want to do. If He is just a man then He speaks with no more authority than any other man. If He is truly God than that creates problems for us. We can no longer go our own way or justify actions that are not quite right. If He is God we need to listen to Him. If He is God we need to change.
If the Bible is true, a topic for another day, and I believe it is, then we have no choice. Jesus is God in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us. I will end with this quote from C.S. Lewis from “Mere Christianity” – “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 up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to”
Have a blessed day.
