The Deity of Christ

Lol

New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman has gained notoriety for his popular books that attack Christianity, so it's nice when good news can be reported on this.   When Bart began researching for his How Jesus Became God (2014) book he said he expected to discover the deity of Christ and high christological claims of the Church were not original beliefs of the earliest Christians but were a later development that evolved over time.  To Bart's credit, he admitted this assumption was wrong and that belief and preaching of Christ's deity go back to the earliest Christians.

One of my favorite scholars and experts on the subject of Christology is the late Larry Hurtado, who's blog is still available on line.  Here's a link to his blog post about Bart Ehrman's change of mind as well as a review of Bart's book How Jesus Became God (and what's also wrong with this book).

How-jesus-became-god-per-ehrman (book review by Dr. Larry Hurtado)

Here's a partial quote from this link:

"But before I turn to criticism, I want to note a few more positive things.  With probably the majority of NT scholars, Ehrman emphasizes that the exalted claims about Jesus reflected in the NT (e.g., that Jesus shares divine glory, divine rule, the divine name, and is to be given universal reverence) all appeared soon in the aftermath of Jesus’ execution.  These convictions were based primarily on experiences of the risen/exalted Jesus (“visions” in Ehrman’s terms) by Jesus’ followers, which conveyed the conviction that God had raised Jesus from death and had uniquely exalted him as Christ and Lord.

Ehrman (rightly in my view) also notes that these lofty claims about Jesus reflected in the NT seem to have erupted very early, so early that they are presupposed as widely shared already by the time Paul wrote his letters (from ca. 50 CE and thereafter).  In a commendable example of changing his mind, Ehrman acknowledges that prior to immersing himself in the evidence and scholarly analysis for this book, he had assumed a much slower and more drawn-out process, but was driven to conclude that these remarkable Christological beliefs erupted much earlier and much more fully than he had thought.  It’s always reassuring when a scholar admits to learning something new, and even to changing his/her mind."

*In short: the deity of Christ rests on solid ground both Scripturally and historically.

   Isaiah 9:6 And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,

   It goes much further back than the earliest Christians. If he wasn’t God in the flesh, he wasn’t the Messiah that the OT prophesied.

Absolutely

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)

Jesus has always been God, the second person of the Trinity 

But His followers did not proclaim Him the exalted Lord until after His resurrection around 31/33 AD.  Some have erroneously tried to say Christ's deity was not a central Church belief but a later one.  But they can't.  The historical evidence doesn't back them up.  "Jesus is Lord! " was proclaimed with the birth of the Church, not later.  When even atheists like Bart Ehrman are forced to admit this it's good news.

👍