The History of the Lord Jesus Christ!
by
Robert Schmid
“In the beginning God” (Gen 1:1) A statement of fact!
There are no ambiguities, no uncertainties about this statement. The historical, biblical record does not allow for any other option, does not consider any other model. It’s a “take it, or leave it” proposition, and the possibility of “no God” or of “other Gods” does not exist. The (foolish) idea that “something” came from “nothing” is not given one word of consideration. The (foolish) notion that out of “primitive slime,” “intelligent life” evolved, does not come from the mind of God, but from the mind of fallen men. The reason for this is that Satan and mankind, from the beginning, rejected the idea that something or somebody greater than themselves exists, that tells them what to do, and what not to do. From the beginning, Satan and man lost the basic understanding that the Creator is always, and will always be, above His creation, just like a father is always, and will always be, above his children, a fact that is fundamental, and unalterable.
This paper is about the historical Jesus, based on the biblical record, and not on mythology. In order to obtain an (a more accurate) understanding of history, i.e., of “His Story,” we must view the existence of Jesus in three distinct time segments. Failure to do so will result in confusion, and the reading of scripture out of context, opening the door to false Theology, and false Christology, i.e., opening the door to mythology.
What are the three stages of existence of the LORD Jesus Christ? They are:
- From “Eternity” to the “Fullness of Time.”
- From “Life” to “Death.”
- From “Resurrection” to “Eternity.”
From “Eternity” to the “Fullness of
Time”
Once we accept the biblical statement that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” we can move on to an explanation of the first stage of the existence of Jesus Christ. The explanation comes to us from John 1:1 where it gives us a more detailed explanation of who and what was in the beginning:
“In the beginning was the WORD;
and the Word was with God;
and the Word was God.”
Yes, in the beginning was God, but in the same beginning (or, from all eternity) was also the Word. John 1:1 is a straight and plain statement that in the beginning was God and His Word.
Please note what John 1:1 does NOT say:
It does NOT say, in the beginning was the triune God.
It does NOT say, in the beginning was God the Father, God the Son and God
the Holy Ghost.
It does NOT say, in the beginning were two Gods.
It does NOT say, in the beginning was God the Father and God the Son.
It does NOT say, in the beginning was God the Father and the Son of God.
It does NOT say, in the beginning was God and His Spokesman.
It does NOT say, in the beginning was Jesus.
It does NOT say, in the beginning was the Family of God.
NO! It says, “In the beginning was the WORD.” Nothing more and nothing less – believe it, or not! However, we should ask, why the shift from: “In the beginning God” in the Old Testament, to: “In the beginning was the Word” in the New Testament? The reason is that in the beginning God spoke. How? He spoke with and through His WORD. God is a Spirit (being), and the thoughts of His mind are expressed through His words, just like the thoughts of your mind are expressed through your words (remember, man is created in the image of God).
From the beginning and throughout Old Testament time, there was ONE God, God Almighty, the Creator of heavens and earth. God spoke, through and by His Word, and it was. God and His Word was ONE God, NOT two God’s!
Consider that much of the Old Testament is prophecy that looks forward to the coming of a Messiah, that looks forward to the coming of the Son of God, that looks forward to the “fullness of time,” that looks forward to the most important event in human history. What was that event? That prophecy was fulfilled, and that event happened 2000 years ago, and is defined in John 1:14 where it tells us that:
“THE WORD BECAME FLESH.”
Please note who did NOT become flesh:
God Almighty did NOT become flesh.
The second person in the Trinity did NOT become flesh.
The Son of God did NOT become flesh.
Jesus did NOT become flesh.
The Spokesman did NOT become flesh.
NO. It says:
“The WORD became flesh” (became human)
The WORD became the begotten Son (of God)
The WORD became the born Son (of man)
The WORD became Jesus (the Christ)
So, in the beginning [or, from ETERNITY] was the WORD (of God); and the WORD (of God) was with God; and the WORD (of God) was God, until the WORD of GOD became the SON of GOD in the FULLNESS OF TIME.
This then brings us to the second stage of the existence of Jesus Christ.
From “Life” to “Death”
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal 4:4). “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 1:18). God, who was married to Israel, chose the Virgin Mary, as His surrogate wife, representing all of Israel, to carry and give birth to His firstborn Son – Jesus.
Let’s be clear about the undeniable fact that God, a Spirit Being, impregnated Mary, a human being. How? God, through the power of His Holy Spirit, deposited His Word - sperm/seed - into Mary, and she conceived. For the next nine month she carried a child that was begotten by God the Father, and then born of Mary the Mother.
“And the WORD became FLESH”
Jesus was born with a dual, a physical, and a spiritual nature. He was a BORN, human being (fully human), and He was a BEGOTTEN God being (not fully God, not yet born of God). It was the (eternal) Word of God that became the (begotten) Son of God. Let’s understand! God did NOT become a man (at least not directly)! God fathered a Son who was BORN as a man.
Let’s also understand that the traditional teaching that Jesus was “fully God” and “fully man” is false, and is in direct violation of the law of non-contradiction. Jesus could not have been “fully God” and “fully man” at the same time, and in the same body, no more than a glass can not be “fully full” and “fully empty” at the same time, and in the same glass. There is no such thing as a “hypostatic union,” just like there is no “incarnation,” no “transubstantiation,” no “existence before birth,” and therefore no “trinity,” in all of scripture. These concepts are all (only) required for the mythological Trinity doctrine.
When Jesus was 30 years old, He was baptized by John in the Jordan. “And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Mark 1:10-11). This then was the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, the born son of man, and the begotten Son of God.
For three and one halve years Jesus lived, raised up disciples, taught the word of God, healed the sick, and raised up people from death, and many other miracles He did. How was He able to perform such miracles, as (only) a begotten Son of God? He was able to perform such miracles because He had total trust and perfect faith in God His Father. Faith was the umbilical cord that connected Him to His Father. In fact, Jesus said that if we, the begotten children of God, would have faith the size of a mustard seed, we too could perform such miracles.
Jesus perfectly fulfilled all Old Testament prophecies that He would come as the suffering servant, and as the sacrificial lamb without blemish (sin), to make atonement for the sins of all mankind, once, and for all.
After a mock trial by the Roman Government, driven by His brethren the Jews, Jesus was beaten, and humiliated, and crucified, shedding His (innocent) blood, for (the guilty) you and me. He showed His love for all mankind saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Jesus, the (born) son of man and the (begotten) Son of God died at the age of 33 ½ years. He came to do the Father’s will, and He completed the job He came to do. His last words were, “It is finished!” “Father, ‘into Your hands I commend My spirit’” (John 19:30; Luke 23:46).
This then brings us to the third stage of the existence of Jesus Christ.
From “Resurrection” to “Eternity”
“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.’ But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” [grave] (Matt 12:38-40).
“Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the woman, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said.’ Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you” (Matt 28:1-7).
After Jesus was crucified and died late Wednesday afternoon, God, His Father, raised Him from the death, at the end of the Sabbath, perfectly fulfilling the only sign given that He would be in the grave three days and three nights, as was the prophet Jonah three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.
From the above scriptures it becomes obvious, and clear, that the traditional Jesus of Catholicism and Protestantism, who was in the grave from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, is a false Jesus. At best (even counting only portions of a day), this (false) Jesus was in the grave only three days and two nights, not meeting the only sign given to identify the true Messiah.
Paul wrote: “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve”
(1 Cor. 15:3-5).“Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain”
(1 Cor 15:12-14).“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” ”But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming”
(1 Cor 15: 20, 23).
Let’s understand that the resurrection of Jesus constituted His second birth! He was “born again,” born of God His Father, born as a Spirit Being, now fully God, no longer a human being, the firstborn Son of God Almighty.
For the next forty days, Jesus Christ manifested Himself as a human being to many people and in many places. He gave final instructions to His disciples to feed and tend His sheep, and empowered them, by giving them of His Holy Spirit, to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and raise the dead to (physical) life.
“So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19).
In the BEGINNING (eternity) was the “Word of God” (John 1:1), and
In the END (eternity) was the “Word of God”
(Revelation 19:13).“He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called THE WORD OF GOD”
(Rev 19:13).
This then is the complete History (His Story) of the LORD Jesus Christ.
Postscript:
To be sure, the primary purpose for the coming of the Messiah was to pay the death penalty, for the sins of all mankind, demanded by a holy and righteous God. However, secondarily, Jesus came to show the way, came to be our example that we can follow confidently, for He was without sin.
Obviously, we ought to follow Jesus’ example of keeping all of His Father’s commandments, but the most important example Jesus gave was to show us, by His birth, life, death, and resurrection, of how to become true children of God.
When Jesus told [commanded] Nicodemus (and by extension all of mankind) that he (we) must be “born again” to enter and see the Kingdom of God, He did not just give him a metaphor, or an analogy for conversion. No, he plainly and literally told him that, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and “that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.” Jesus, our example, was born of flesh, and therefore He was flesh. Then, Jesus was born again, born of the Spirit, and therefore HE is Spirit.
God, through Paul, tells us that “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual” (1 Cor 15:44, 46). That was precisely the sequence in the life of our example, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let it be known, that the Jesus who was first spiritual, and then physical, and then spiritual again, was, and is a false Jesus!
The true Jesus was first born as the SON of MAN, with a physical body, and then born again as the SON of GOD, with a spiritual body, according to the scriptures. We must follow His example and become BORN AGAIN, born with a spiritual body, born as divine, spirit, God Beings, in order to enter and see the Family, the Kingdom of God.
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