Question:  Dear Greg,

            I’ve been enjoying your program on my local radio station.  It’s such a pleasure to listen to an intellectual Christian speaking out.  I’m just beginning to learn about Christianity after a lifetime of being a “Christian”.  In exploring my own spirituality, I find that the more I learn, the more questions I have.  Your radio program, magazine and website are most helpful and perhaps this question has already been asked, but I haven’t found it yet, so please bear with me if it has been answered.

            In the Ten Commandments, the Number One commandment is to have no other gods except the one true God.  How are we certain that Christ is the Son of God?  How can I be certain that in worshipping Christ, that I’m not offending God?

            I hope this question doesn’t sound impertinent or offensive, but the idea of offending God is preventing me from moving forward in my own spiritual growth.

            Thank you so much,

            Barb

Answer:  Dear Barb,

            Excellent question!  Let me try to give you a brief answer.

            Yes, the first commandment is about having only one God—“no other gods”.  The Hebrews learned this lesson the hard way, as the Old Testament tells us.  Time after time they fell into idol worship.  As time progressed, the Jews “put a fence” around this commandment (along with the next three commandments) by adding restrictions.  Some Jews to this day will not say nor print the name of God—preferring, in English, G-d.

            Then, “when the time had fully come” (Galatians 4:4) God came to us in the person of Jesus.  He was and is “God with us”—Emmanuel (Matthew 1:23 )—the Eternal Son of God (John 1:14 -18), the second person of the Godhead from eternity, the Alpha and Omega “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).  The Jews did not accept the divinity of Jesus because, among other things, they could not understand how one God could in fact be Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).  Jesus told them that he was God in the flesh, for he would resurrect (and did of course) his own body when they killed him (John 2:18 -22).  The Jews did not accept Jesus as the Son of God, for such a claim would make him equal to God—so they decided to kill him because 1) he claimed he was God and 2) because he broke their Sabbath (John 5:18).

            You are not offending God when you worship Jesus, for Jesus is God—the second divine Person of the Godhead.  You are not offending the Father or the Holy Spirit when you worship Jesus because they are one God in three distinct and separate divine Persons, three divine Persons who are co-equal and co-essential.  Accepting Jesus as God is not always easy.  After all, one of his disciples, forever dubbed “doubting Thomas” demanded that he feel Jesus’ resurrected body before he believed—and when he did he called Jesus “My Lord and My God” (John 20:28).

            We have a booklet titled “He Left His Footprints” that we will be happy to send you, free of charge, if you live in the U.S. or Canada .  If you want a copy, simply let us have a mailing address to which you would like us to send it.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht