Reflection Paper

        Looking online, one can stumble across Wikipedia and find that Theology is a study of a god, more generally, the study of a religious faith, practice, and experience, or of spirituality. Reflecting back on everything I have learned in Theology, I have three questions I would love to discuss in detail.

Did Jesus ever claim to be God?

        In the New Testament the deity of Christ is never really confirmed. One must look in other ways to see that Jesus did in fact claim that he was the Messiah. Through interpretation of a few gospels you can see that Jesus did claim divinity. Examining evidence in the Bible, we find claims that support the idea that Jesus did claim to be God in the flesh or incarnated God. Jesus is never quoted directly saying “I am God”, but then again Jesus did not state anything that was not true because he could not sin. Jesus never actually defined his position in the Holy Trinity, but he did state things that would be blasphemous if not true. Many claims of divinity come from John. John reiterates the concept of deity in 1:1 “the Word was God” and “the Word became Flesh.” Jesus states in John that he and the Father are the same.  “I and the Father are one” (John 10:24-38). Jesus also told the Pharisees that they would die in their sins if they did not believe that He was who He claimed to be (John 8:24). Jesus even stated to Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). In Matthew 13:41, Jesus states that the kingdom and the angels are His. "The Son of man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and evildoers" (Matt. 13:41). Angels are often referred to as “the angels of God” (Luke 12:8 9; 15:10) and the kingdom is referring to the Kingdom of Heaven. Unless Jesus was God, it would be unsuitable for Jesus to make this claim that the angels and the kingdom was His. Even though Jesus Christ never exactly says “I am God” there are many clues and interpretations that claim that he was in fact God in the flesh.

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What can your local church do to better communicate God’s love to your community?

        Perception is reality. Working as a police officer in a busy metropolitan, this thought is always in the back of my mind. Perception about how I carry myself and how I act in a professional manner can make or break our trust with the community. If I start to affect an arrest on a drug dealer and he begins to fight, I have been trained to yell "Quit resisting" "Quit fighting with me" because perception is reality.   One person may see me as ...

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