The Deity of Christ

In the blockbuster book, The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown alleged that Christ’s deity was concocted 300 years after His crucifixion.  Jehovah’s Witnesses also distribute literature espousing that Christ’s divine nature is a trumped-up teaching of men, rather than an actual doctrine of God.

While many New Testament passages could be consulted to demonstrate the deity of Christ (e.g. John 1:1,14; 20:28; Philippians 2:6; Hebrews 1:5-13; etc.), it is unfortunate that many Christians are completely unaware that, long before Christ was born in flesh to offer His life for our salvation, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah foretold His Godhood.

In approximately 700 BC, Isaiah prophesied about many things concerning the Messiah.  Hebrew scholar Risto Santala wrote: “The Messianic nature of the book of Isaiah is so clear that the oldest Jewish sources, the Targum, Midrash and Talmud, speak of the Messiah in connection with 62 separate verses, including Isaiah 9:6-7.

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there  shall be no end upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice rom henceforth even for ever.  The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.”

The Targum elucidates this verse, saying “His name has been from ancient times….”  or that He is the Father of eternity.   

What’s more, Isaiah 7:14  also prophesied: “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name Immanuel (God with us).”  Why would Isaiah call the Messiah “Mighty God,” “Everlasting Father,” and “Immanuel,” if He was not God?

Interestingly, more than 100 years before Christ was “made God” [The Da Vinci Code) at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, Irenaeus quoted from Isaiah 9:6 and applied the divine names to Christ, who “is Himself in His own right…God.”

“…this is Christ, the Son of the living God.  For I have shown from the Scriptures, that no one of the sons of Adam is as to everything, and absolutely, called God, or named Lord.  But that He is Himself in His own right, beyond all men who ever lived, God, and Lord, and King Eternal, and the Incarnate Word, proclaimed by all the prophets, the apostles, and by the Spirit Himself, may be seen by all who have attained to even a small portion of the truth.  Now the Scriptures would not have testified these things of Him, if, like others, He had been a mere man.  But that He had, beyond all others, in Himself that pre-eminent birth which is from the Most High Father, and also experienced that pre-eminent generation which is from the virgin, the divine Scriptures do in both respects testify of Him:…that He is the Holy Lord, the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Beautiful in appearance, and the Mighty God, comong on the clouds as the judge of all men; all these things did the Scriptures prophesy of Him.” Book III, Chapter 19

Isaiah not only referred explicitly to Jesus as “Mighty God” in 9:6, he also alluded to the Messiah’s divine nature in a prophecy about John the Baptizer being the forerunner of the Messiah in 40:3-5: “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”   

Truly, long before the Christian age, even long before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah provided inspired testimony of the nature of Christ.  He is Yashua, the Mighty God, Immanuel, the Everlasting Father, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

“Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and His redeemer the Lord of hosts; I Am the first, and I Am the last; and beside me there is no God.”  Isaiah 44:6

First published at Apologetics Press:  Isaiah and the Deity of Christ

Numerous Old Testament passages attest to not only the birth but the crucifixion and resurrection of Yashua.

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