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My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!
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Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.
It's frustrating to look for the truth these days. Everybody seems to have an opinion. Every preacher, every video, and every church claims to be right, and yet they give conflicting answers. Their teachings contradict each other. They can't all be right, and yet they all claim to have the truth. If you're not a Christian and you're looking for answers, this can be discouraging.
But don't give up. You can find the truth if you keep searching with all your heart. Jesus said, "Seek and you shall find" [Matthew seven, verse seven]. It takes time and effort, but it can be done. If you are a Christian, you get tired of all this confusion. You get tired of people asking why there's so much division in religion, especially among churches.
But here's what we'll be looking at in this series. This religious division is not new. There have been conflicting beliefs about God and the Bible for thousands of years. But here's what we intend to focus on. People in Bible times were divided about religion—very divided. One person believed in one god, and another believed in a different god. One person worshiped his way, and another worshiped a different way. One group had their doctrine, and another group had just the opposite. But here's the encouraging part. Jesus stepped into the middle of all this controversy and confusion and taught the truth, and many people believed it. Many people were saved.
And yes, it's true that many people didn't accept what Jesus taught. It was their choice. But as far as religious division is concerned, you'll see all kinds of conflicting doctrines in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, but the Sadducees said it won't happen. The Samaritans worshiped in Mount Gerizim, but the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem. And if you want to see division—endless, tedious confusion—look at what the Jewish rabbis taught when Jesus was here. They couldn't agree on much of anything. One rabbi said this, and another rabbi said that. And if you ever have the time or interest to look into this, just read a page or two in the Mishnah. That book contains rabbinical traditions from roughly two hundred BC to about two hundred AD. You'll feel like pulling your hair out in no time.
But Jesus gave clarity with his teaching. That's why the Bible says these words at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. "And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine.
For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes" [Matthew seven, verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine]. The scribes and the rabbis confused people. Jesus caused them to see.
So for the next few weeks, we'll be looking at questions people ask today. These are questions that get a lot of opinions, but we'll see that the same thing happened two thousand years ago in the New Testament, and we'll see that it wasn't the end of the world.
We'll see Jesus opening the eyes of people who had a good and honest heart. And if people then could find the truth in the midst of division and confusion over the Bible, then we can know the truth today. Remember, there's nothing new under the sun [Ecclesiastes one verse nine]. So let's start today with a simple issue. This is an example of finding the truth in a sea of confusion. This is a question that is raised today, and there are many opinions about it. It was a question in Jesus' time. Have you ever noticed how many people were divided over who Jesus was in the New Testament? Let's start in the book of John chapter seven. John chapter seven verse forty. The Bible says, "Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, of a truth this is the Prophet." Now, that is a reference back to the Old Testament in Deuteronomy chapter eighteen verses fifteen through seventeen. In that passage, Moses talked about a great prophet that God would raise up like unto him from among the brethren. Now, we know because of Acts chapter three verses twenty-two through twenty-four that that prophet was Jesus Christ, because Jesus was a prophet. He was not a prophet. He was not just any prophet. He was the great prophet. But in New Testament times, some of the Jews thought that that prophet that Moses foretold would be a different person from Jesus Christ.
That was a misunderstanding, but that was one of the common ideas. That was a misinterpretation of the Bible. So we're already getting started with some of the wrong views about the Bible, some of the misinterpretations of Scripture. So the Bible says this in verse forty, and then it goes on to say in verse forty-one, "Others said, 'This is the Christ.'" So you have one opinion or one interpretation in verse forty because some said that this is the prophet [in their way of understanding it]. Then in verse forty, others said, "No, he is the Christ." And those people were right. They had the truth. But there was another group of people. There was a third interpretation or a third opinion about who Jesus was.
Verse forty-one goes on to say, "But some said, 'Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that Christ comes of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?' So there was a division among the people because of him." Now, the reason for that third opinion, which was wrong, is this. The Bible in the Old Testament did say that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, but that didn't mean that he would grow up there. Jesus was born in Bethlehem [Matthew chapter two, verses one through six]. But that didn't mean that he grew up there and that he was raised there. These people said in verse forty-one, "But shall Christ come out of Galilee?"
He was raised in Galilee, but he was born in Bethlehem. So we have three opinions about Jesus here. Two of them are wrong and one is right. The first one about the prophet was wrong because they assumed that that prophet would be somebody different from the Messiah. That was their problem. That was their fault.
And the third opinion, which was that he could not be the Christ because he came out of Galilee, was based on the assumption that he had to grow up and be raised in Bethlehem, and that is not what that passage said. So here's an early example in the Book of John of people who had the same Bible, and yet they came up with different conclusions about it.
They had the same Scriptures, and yet they had different interpretations of it. That was 2,000 years ago. And they also had the same Jesus in front of them. What I mean by that is they saw the same miracles, and yet they came to different conclusions about who did those miracles and how they were done. So if that happened then with the Lord Jesus standing right in front of them and doing miracles before their very eyes, then don't be surprised if people today are divided over who He was and what He said.
Now let's go to John Chapter nine. Here we find the story of Jesus healing the blind man, and after He healed the blind man, the Pharisees got upset. They wanted to know who did this, and so they started their investigation. The Bible says in verse 13 of John Chapter nine, "They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, 'He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and do see.' Therefore said some of the Pharisees, 'This man is not of God, because he keeps not the sabbath day.'"
In other words, this man that they're referring to is Jesus, and they're saying that He cannot be from God. Not only is He not the Messiah, but He cannot even be from God because He has broken the Sabbath. Now, the truth is Jesus did not break the Sabbath. How on earth could healing a man be a violation of the Sabbath labor law?
But of course, that does not make any sense. How on earth can healing a man, especially giving sight to the blind, break the law that Moses gave about working on the Sabbath? But that's what some of the scribes and Pharisees said. They said in John 9:16, "This man is not of God, because he keeps not the sabbath day."
But then that verse goes on to say, "Others said, 'How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?' And there was a division among them." So here again, we find the same Jesus doing the same miracle, and yet people come up with different interpretations or different opinions about that. So if that happened when Jesus was on the earth doing miracles, then don't be surprised if that happens today when people read those miracles or anything else the Bible says about Jesus' life and His teaching.
If people had different interpretations and different opinions about what Jesus said and did when he was on the earth, then they're certainly going to have them today. Now, I'm not trying to excuse these people who came up with the wrong conclusions, because the evidence was clear. There was no shortage of proof and no shortage of clarity in the miracles themselves.
The problem was with the Pharisees' heart. They hated Jesus. They hated what He said. They hated who He was, and they were not going to accept anything that He did or said. And it's really interesting in John Chapter nine that they are so stubborn that they won't even believe the man who's been healed.
They get into an argument here. The Bible says in verse 24, "Then again they called the man that was blind and said to him, 'Give God the praise. We know that this man is a sinner.' He answered and said, 'Whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know.'" But he said, "There is one thing I do know, and that is I was blind, and now I see."
But that didn't satisfy the Pharisees. They didn't believe him still. "Then said they to him again," in verse 26: "Then they said to him again, 'What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?' He answered them, 'I have told you already, and you did not hear. Why would you hear it again? Will you also be his disciples?' Then they reviled him and said, 'You are his disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God's spoken to Moses. As for this fellow, we do not know from where he is.' The man answered and said to them, 'Why herein is a marvelous thing, that you do not know from where he is, and yet he has opened mine eyes. Now we know that God hears not sinners, but if any man be a worshiper of God and does his will, him he hears. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.'" And the story ended with these Pharisees throwing this man out of the synagogue.
But there's another example. We're talking about the question “Who was Jesus?”—and there were different answers that people gave to that question even when Jesus was here fulfilling Old Testament Scriptures and doing miracles in the presence of these Jews. It's John Chapter 10, verses 19 through 21. “There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. And many of them said, "He has a devil, and is mad. Why do you hear him?" Others said, "These are not the words of him that has a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?" So we have the same Jesus, the same miracle, and these people have different interpretations or opinions about it.
The first group of people are in verse 20. Many of these people said He has a demon. Now, of course, you may remember that that's not the only time that they said that in the New Testament. If you go back to the Book of Matthew chapter 10 verse 25, you find that Jesus told his disciples this: “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” The master of the house here was Jesus, and He said that they were calling him Beelzebub, which was a name for the devil. In Matthew chapter twelve, verse twenty-three, the Bible says after Jesus had cast out a demon that the people were all amazed and said, "Is not this the Son of David?"
So in Matthew twelve verse twenty-three, we have one opinion. We have one view. These people had the right interpretation of the miracle. The man that did this is the son, that is, the descendant of David who would be the Messiah. That's Matthew chapter twelve, verse twenty-three. But you have a different group of people in verse twenty-four who see the same miracle, and they have a different opinion about it. In Matthew chapter twelve, verse twenty-four, when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "This fellow does not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils."
Another example is John chapter eight. In verse forty-eight of John chapter eight, the Bible says, "Then answered the Jews and said to him, 'Do we not say well that you are a Samaritan, and that you have a devil?'" For a Jew to be called a Samaritan was one of the worst slurs. It was one of the worst slanders that a Jew could incur. And so when they wanted to really insult Jesus, they called him a Samaritan. But they weren't satisfied with just that term. They said, "You are a Samaritan, and you have a devil.” You are demon-possessed.
You're out of your mind. And after Jesus said in verse fifty-one, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death," the Bible says in verse fifty-two that they reiterated their charge. Then said the Jews unto him, "Now we know that you have a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets, and you say, 'If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death.'"
Now, that brings us back to John chapter ten in the passage that we just looked at. Many of the people in John chapter ten, verse twenty said, "He has a devil and is mad." That is, he's crazy. He is insane. Because when a demon possessed someone in the first century, he was not in his right mind. If you read Mark chapter five, you see the story of the demons called Legion.
And the Bible says after Jesus cast those demons out, the man was sitting in his right mind, which means he was not in his right mind. That is, he was crazy. He was insane while the demon had possessed him. And so they were used to seeing people that were demon-possessed, and they knew that they were insane. And that's what they said about Jesus.
And there's another passage in the Bible that makes it clear that it was not just his enemies that sometimes said that about him, but it was also some of his relatives. The Bible says in Mark chapter three, verse twenty, "And the multitude comes together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends," that is, some of his relatives, "heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him, for they said, 'He is beside himself.'" In other words, he's lost his mind.
But going back to John chapter ten, verse twenty-one, there were others that said, "These are not the words of him that has a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?" So these Jews two thousand years ago saw the same deeds that Jesus did, and they had different opinions about him. They heard the same words that he taught, and they had different interpretations of what he said.
Now let's turn to the Book of Matthew. We're going to look at Matthew chapter sixteen. In verse thirteen, Jesus asked the question, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" Now, He's talking to his disciples, and he wants to know what they've heard people saying about him. In verse fourteen, "And they said, 'Some say that you are John the Baptist.'" Now, it's interesting that one of those people was a king. In Mark chapter six verse fourteen, the Bible says, "And King Herod heard of him," that is, of Jesus, "for his name was spread abroad. And he said, That John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him. Others said, That it is Elijah. And others said, That it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets. But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded. He is risen from the dead."
So in Mark chapter six verses fourteen through sixteen, you find again that people were divided. They couldn't agree as to the simple question: who is Jesus of Nazareth? Herod said He's John the Baptist; John the Baptist has risen from the dead. Others said, "No, he's Elijah." Others said He is a prophet or like one of the prophets.
And those are the same kinds of answers that we see in Matthew chapter sixteen verse fourteen. The disciples said that some people were saying, "You're John the Baptist." And then they said, "Some people are saying that you are Elijah." And then there were others that said he's Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
Now think of all these opinions that we've looked at. Some people said that He was John the Baptist. Some people said that he was Jeremiah. Some people said that he was Elijah. Some people said that he's just one of the prophets without naming a particular prophet. Some people said that he was a Samaritan and had a devil. Some people said that he was the devil himself. Some people said that he was crazy. But there was one view of Jesus that was true, and anyone who had a good and honest heart could see that. And Peter and the other apostles were just some of the people that had that good and honest heart and could see that Jesus was the Son of God.
In Matthew sixteen verse fifteen, Jesus goes on to say, "But whom say you that I am?" Who do you disciples say that I am? And it was Simon Peter that spoke up in verse 16 and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Now, everyone else could have done that because they had the same information. I know that the apostles had special powers. I know that they spoke by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But at the same time, other people could see the miracles of Jesus and know that he was the Son of God. In John 3 verse 2, the Bible says that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that you do, except God be with him."
In fact, the whole Book of John from beginning to end talks about the fact that Jesus is deity. He is God in the flesh. In John 1 verse 1, the Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
Then in verse 14, the Bible says, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Then in John 20 verse 30 and 31, the Bible talks about the miracles that Jesus did and how that they showed that He was the Son of God. In John 20 verse 30, the Bible says, "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through his name." And yet in spite of all the miracles that Jesus did, there were some people that refused to believe that He was the Son of God.
In John 12 verse 37, the Bible says, "But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him." So Jesus did and said everything He could to convince these people, and yet some of them would not believe. So it's amazing to us to think about people who saw all this and refused to believe, but that just underscores one thing, and that is man has free will.
People make their choices, and God does not force a man to love Him and to believe in Him. That's why we find people rejecting even the clearest miracles in the Bible. And if people then couldn't agree on what Jesus' miracles meant, it shouldn't be a surprise today that people don't agree on what His words mean.
Now, let's fast-forward to our time, 2,000 years later. Let's ask the question: Who is Jesus? And we're going to see the same kind of disagreement. We're going to see different interpretations of the evidence as to who Jesus is and who Jesus was. One of those views is that Jesus was a myth. There's some people who say that Jesus never existed. They don't believe there ever was a Jesus of Nazareth. Now, I'm not trying to say that there are a lot of people who hold to that view. The evidence is so abundant, and the historical evidence is so plain that it's hard for people to get around it. But there are some skeptics and some atheists who say that Jesus never existed, and that goes against what even secular historians said about Jesus.
One of them was Josephus. Now, he lived from 37 to 100 AD. He was a Jew. There's no evidence that he ever became a Christian, and yet here's what he said about Jesus. “Now, there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive the third day as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him, and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.” So here is a Jew, not a Christian, who admits that Jesus lived. He admits that Pilate crucified him. He didn't believe that because he read it in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. He believed it because it was common knowledge at the day that Jesus actually lived.
Here's another ancient witness. His name was Cornelius Tacitus. This man was a Roman historian. He also was not a Christian. As a matter of fact, he despised them. He thought that the church was a superstition. So in his book, The Annals of Imperial Rome, he writes about the Christians and how they got started. And in this section, he's talking about the rumor that was going around Rome that Nero, the emperor, actually started the great fire.
And he writes, "To suppress this rumor, Nero fabricated scapegoats and punished with every refinement the notoriously depraved Christians, as they were popularly called. Their originator, Christ, had been executed in Tiberius' reign by the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate." So here's a man that is not a Christian at all. He's not trying to help the cause of Christ in any way, and yet he confirms, he agrees with the records in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that Jesus actually was crucified at the hands of Pontius Pilate.
Here's another idea that people have about Jesus today. Here's another view or interpretation as to who Jesus was. Some people say, yes, there was a Jesus, but he was just a man. He wasn't God. He wasn't even a prophet. He was just a man. Now, Jews today that don't accept Jesus as the Son of God usually say that Jesus was a false Christ. They believe that he was a liar. They believe that he was just a man. Well, that presents a question.
If Jesus was just a man, then what kind of man was he? Was he a good man? Was he a bad man? Was he a crazy man? Now we're looking at this hypothetically. If Jesus was only a good man and not God, then you have a real problem because Jesus proved and showed that He was the Son of God. But if he was not the Son of God, if He was only a good man, then that would mean that He lied about it, and good men don't lie.
So you can't say that Jesus was just a good man. The other alternative is to say that Jesus was a man and that He was a bad man. But bad men don't do what Jesus did. Jesus helped people. Jesus taught people. He taught people to love one another and to love God. Jesus condemned the evil thoughts of bad men. Jesus said that bad men are going to hell. Bad men don't talk like that. Bad men don't give their life to defend teaching like that. So if Jesus was just a man, then He had to be a good man, or He had to be a bad man, or he had to be an insane man, and none of those alternatives will work. Which means that Jesus was not just a man; He had to be God like the Bible says in First Timothy three, verse 16, "God was manifested in the flesh."
Another view or an interpretation of Jesus today, which is believed by two billion people, is that Jesus was a prophet. Not the Messiah, not the Christ, not God manifest in the flesh, but simply a prophet. Muslims say that Jesus was a prophet like Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, or any of the others. They don't believe that he was God manifest in the flesh.
As a matter of fact, they say that that is illogical and that it is blasphemy to say that God manifested himself in human form. The Quran says, “Christ, the son of Mary, was no more than a messenger. That's the Quran, Surah five, verse 75. Islam also says that Jesus did not die on the cross In Surah four, verse 157, the Quran says, "They said, 'We kill Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah, but they killed him not nor crucified him.'"
So when people ask, “What's the difference between Islam and Christianity?” the answer is there are several main and very serious disagreements. First of all, Islam teaches that the Quran is God's final revelation to man. Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. Islam teaches that Allah is the Supreme Being. Christians believe that the God of the Bible is the true and the living God. Islam denies the deity of Christ and it denies that Jesus died on the cross and is our Savior. The New Testament affirms all these.
Another interpretation of Jesus is that he is an angel. The Jehovah's Witness denomination says that Jesus is a created being, that he is an angel. Specifically, they say that he's Michael the archangel in the Bible. But that can't be true because it contradicts the Bible. Two of the chapters you need to remember when you think about this subject are John chapter one and Hebrews chapter one. In John chapter one, you have John saying that the Word was God, and that he made everything.
So if Jesus is God, John 1:1, and if he made everything [John 1verse 3], then Jesus is not an angel because angels are created. Then in Hebrews chapter one, you have a great section here talking about Jesus being the Son and how that He made all things, how that He upholds all things by the word of his power, how that He is so much better than the angels [Hebrews 1 verse 4].
And also in verse eight, the Bible says that the Father said to the Son, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." Now think about what I just read. Hebrews 1 verses 7 through 8 says that the Father himself said to the Son, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever." God the Father himself called Jesus the Son God. That's Hebrews 1 verse 8.
So are things any different today than they were in the first century? People had all kinds of ideas and opinions about who Jesus was when Jesus was here among the people. So today, two thousand years later, we still have many interpretations as to who Jesus was. Now, that doesn't excuse people. It doesn't mean that one interpretation is just as good as another.
It doesn't mean that people can't find out what the truth is about Jesus. Here's what Jesus said in John chapter seven, verse seventeen. This is very important to remember about this question. In John chapter seven, verse seventeen, Jesus said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."
Jesus said if you want to do His will, if you want to learn about Him, if you want to know who He is, if you want to obey Him and be saved, you can know. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me." In Acts chapter two, verse thirty-six, Peter said to the people on Pentecost day, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Nobody in that crowd said to Peter, "Wait a minute. That's just your interpretation, Peter. That's just your opinion about Jesus." Nobody even said to him, "You're just giving us your interpretation of those Old Testament scriptures." They listened to him, and the Bible says in verse thirty-seven, "Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?'
Then Peter said to them, 'Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.'" Verse forty-one says, "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."
And verse forty-seven says, "And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." Who is Jesus? He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.