If Jesus never claimed to be God then why does everyone say that He is God?

Answer 1

Jesus DID claim to be God in human form - not once, nor on a few occasions, but constantly and consistently throughout his ministry.

Jesus himself claimed to be God, in what he said, his miracles and in what he did. The earliest Christians realised that Jesus was God in human form starting with Peter's acclamation before the resurrection: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" meaning that Jesus was the chosen one promised as God incarnate to save humanity, and Thomas's acclamation after the resurrection, on seeing the risen Christ "My Lord and my God!". Since the disciples' time, the whole theology of Christianity has been centred on the divinity of Jesus Christ - throughout history.

Jesus claimed to be God consistently. Firstly, by forgiving sins, something that the Jews believed that only God could do; he claimed to be God (John 10:33). He cast out 'demons' - again something only God could do (Mark 1: 21-24). He became transfigured before three disciples' eyes - three disciples who were convinced by his divinity (Mark 9: 2-12, Matthew 17: 1-13, Luke 9: 28-36). He claimed to be God incarnate through his miracles (John calls them 'signs' indicating just who Jesus is). Jesus accepted worship - in Jewish eyes only God could be worshipped. He claimed alone to have a special relationship with the Father and that he alone will be the judge of the world (Mark 14: 61-62). Jesus used the statement 'I am' on many occasions - a statement that referred back to Moses and the burning bush where God gives his name as 'yah Weh' - I AM. Jesus's behaviour angered the Jewish authorities who tried to stone him on several occasions, because, as they put it, 'he claimed to be God'.

The truth that Jesus is God incarnate is born out throughout the Bible and not just the gospels. Even the prophesies of the Old Testament point the way to Jesus coming as saviour and Lord. Even the name given to him by the great prophet Isaiah indicates that Jesus is God incarnate ("Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (Is. 7:14) ). Emmanuel means literally "God with us".

Isaiah is unequivocal in his 'Emmanuel' description; Jesus is not a demigod, god-like, nor a subservient 'son' of God, nor just a prophet. The Hebrew is absolutely clear - God himselfis with us in human form.

Even the theology behind the atonement - through the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross - demands that Christ is God incarnate. For if Jesus was not God incarnate and simply a subservient 'Son' (as, for example, the Jehovah's Witnesses would have us believe) then God sacrificed someone else on the Cross - Jesus. This then suggests a God who demands sacrifice of someone else to appease him much in the same way as the false gods of old demanded sacrifice for their appeasement. This is not in accord with a God of love as described in scripture, and by Jesus himself. Instead God sacrificed himself - through Jesus - as a self-giving act of infinite unconditional love.

Furthermore, it is a travesty of history and historical accuracy to even suggest that Jesus' divinity is somehow traced to the council of Nicaea. Jesus' divinity was known way before this. The early church fathers, many of whom could trace their lineage back to Jesus himself (e.g. Irenaeus was a pupil of Polycarp who was a pupil of John the apostle, Jesus' closest disciple) all agreed on the divinity of Jesus and the Trinitarian doctrine was realised as inevitable to accommodate Jesus' divinity. If Jesus wasn;t divine, the Trinity would never have been necessary. It's also a common misconception to believe that there were many 'cults' and the 'Jesus is divine' cult won the day. Yes, some cults did spring up in the early Church (eg Arianism, an heretical cult with skewed belief still followed by Jehovah's Witnesses today). But here we are talking of the early church. The first and second century churches of Paul, of Galatia, Thessaloniki, Corinth, Liaodicea, Smyrna, Ephesus, and so on, where there were questions of minor concern (eg was circumcision necessary for Christians?) but where the divinity of Jesus Christ was never called into question.

Neither did Jesus claim to be a subservient son of God. He claimed much more - to be God in human form. Christians believe those claims to be true - not out of blind faith but simply because Jesus' thoughts, words and actions, and the effect that he, and the Holy Spirit has had on countless billions of people throughout history, all bear out and confirm these claims to be true.

Another answer:

Despite the sectarian doctrines and apologetics in the above answer, no Jesus never claimed to be God. Jesus only ever claimed to be One with God or the Son of God, that is not unlike saying that I and my Father are of the same blood. Jesus clearly speaks of God in Third Person and he is clearly called the Son of God many times. In John 10:32 for instance he refers to God in third person, people who claim he is God often quote the accusation in John 10:33, but in his response in John 10:34-36 he seems to dismiss the charge, and again re-asserts his relation to God in third person.

Another answer:

The Belief that Jesus is the same as Yahweh requires a doctrinal interpretation of what the Bible actuallysays. Jesus never actually said that he was God.

The reason most people claim that Jesus is God is because it was determined by a vote at the Council of Nicaea. By a non-unanimous decision it was democratically decided whether or not Jesus was the literal son of God, with the trinity being a sort of compromise.

What most today do not realize is that early Christianity was divided into many cults with many radically competing ideas and doctrines, it was not until one cult gained dominance with state backing and started outlawing the other cults that there was ever a general consensus regarding who or what Jesus was.

Answer 2

Certainly, in Mark's Gospel, Jesus did not claim to be God, and even seems to have gone out of his way to dispel any notions that he was God - for example, "Why call me good? There is none good but God."

However, John's Gospel goes quite the other way, having Jesus very definitely claiming to be God.

Modern Christians look to John's Gospel and regard Jesus as God.