ROUGHLY EDITED COPY CUENet AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION DOGMATICS 2 LESSON 20 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. 10 E. 22nd Street Suite 304 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> Which sections of the Bible show that Jesus is God? Perhaps having you identify some key passages will help us in sermon preparation and our work in outreach. >> DR. DAVID SCAER: Well, traditionally in Lutheran theology, certain passages have been set aside as being special because they speak clearly to certain doctrines which we hold dearly. These are called proof passages. And in Latin, the phrase for key passages is ***sai dais doctrini. And this approach is used in Catechism class. I don't know how many people follow the old method of teaching Catechism to children in preparation for Confirmation. But children had to memorize certain Bible passages. One passage over which there was some controversy about translation was from Romans Chapter 9 Verse 5. In the older translation it says that "Jesus Christ was descended from the Father according to the flesh who was at the same time God overall. May he be blessed unto all ages." Well, in the earlier editions of the revised standard version, which is a very popular Bible and which I enjoy using myself, they simply stop the passage by saying that Jesus was descended from the Fathers according to the flesh. Then they put a period. And then they made an entirely new sentence and said, "God be blessed forever." This caused a great deal of commotions about -- among Bible believing Christians about the deity of Jesus, that he was really God. I really wasn't so concerned about that particular controversy because there is no lack of passages which speak about the deity of Jesus. Again, I'm going to return to the situation of studying religion or Christianity in a public or private secular college. The textbooks all will make the comment that Jesus never said that "I am God." And then there is this Bishop Spong who was recently retired who comes out with the statement that Jesus said he's never said that I am the Son of God. It seems like in every 20 to 30 years an Episcopal bishop -- it's strange. They always seem to be Episcopal -- come up with something that's intended to startle Christian believers. He wasn't born of the virgin. He never said he was the Son of God. He wasn't raised from the dead. These people receive a lot of notoriety, especially in the popular magazines like Time and NewsWeek and parade magazines and weekend inserts. Well, of course the preacher has something to say. We have to address this particular kind of question head on because it's not something which is just limited to the college or university or seminary classroom. It's something which our people hear all the time. I would like to point you to the crucifixion scene of Jesus. That's in the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 27. The crowds which gather around Jesus say many derogatory things about him. Like "He believed in God. Let God deliver him." Well, of course you know what happened. God did deliver him. He raised him from the dead. And then they say, "He said, 'I am the Son of God.'" That's a quotation. "He said, 'I am the Son of God. Let him come down from the cross.'" There is a specific reference in which Jesus said, "I am the Son of God." And the Gospel writer, Matthew, does a magnificent job. He puts the testimony of Jesus "I am the Son of God" into the mouths of his enemies. His enemies heard him say "I am the Son of God." There is no lack of passages in which Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. But I would like to take this in an entirely different direction. I think we do ourselves a disfavor if we in any way think or even allow the idea that the concept of Jesus as God and the Son of God is based just upon a few passages. I think that's a great mistake. Not only a great mistake of how we do theology, I think it's a great mistake how we preach. Because really on a Sunday morning when there's Holy Communion, we should be preaching on the Gospel. That's the way it has been traditionally done. And that's the way we do it now. On that account, previously I said Christology is the most important topic. Because that's what we do and that's what we say. That's what we're going to be doing for 20 minutes every Sunday morning. So when we pick a particular Gospel to preach on -- and by the way, I'm not in favor of us -- of the pastor choosing what he's going to preach. -- he should follow what the church order says he should follow. That's determined for him ahead of time. Within that particular section of the scripture, he will have a great deal of freedom. And now he's going to ask "What am I going to say?" In all of the pericopes, in all of the sections of the gospels upon which he's going to preach, there's going to be a reference to Jesus as God. The only problem is that we do not recognize these divine markers which are in the gospels themselves. And so while we certainly want to learn passages which are very clear in my estimation, the entire New Testament is clear in showing that Jesus is God. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***