Click on each image and read the chart for its information
The Deity of Jesus Christ
(God, the Son)
What different churches teach about Christ's Nature
Atheist
Believe Jesus was just a man. They do credit him with being an influential philosopher and a moral intellectual who became wiser with age. They do not believe Jesus was raised from the dead.
Christadelphian
Jesus did not exist in any personal way before His divine conception but is the literal "word of God" become flesh. He was created a special but mortal man. He received divine power at His baptism which was withdrawn at the cross. Since they assert man has no soul, he also ceased to exist during the three days he was dead. Upon his resurrection, Jesus became the fullness of deity in bodily form thus completing a three step progression in nature. (Heb 13:8) They do not believe Christ will ever be equal to God or truly divine since they believe Jesus is a created being just like man and the angels.
Jehovah's Witnesses
They teach that Jesus was created by God just prior to creation. Jesus then created everything else. (Col 1:16,17 NWT inserts "other" before "things" to make the text read, "By His all OTHER things were created". The word "other" inserted throughout the text is not in the original Greek.) Jesus is not considered to be equal to God at all but a lesser being. Jesus ceased to exist at His death for 3 days.
Mormon
"As man now is, God once was...As God now is, man can become." Is a saying that accurately describes Mormon view of Jesus. Mormons believe that Jesus was created by God and is a "brother" to Satan. Like H.W. Armstrong, they teach divine progression. Jesus was once just a man who lived on another planet. He eventually progressed to be equal to God and came to colonize planet earth with "gods to be" or humans. Unforeseen to Christ, Satan (Jesus' brother) put a kink in this plan when he deceived Adam and Eve. Jesus was then required to die for fallen man, His creation. Jesus therefore is a model for us and one day we will be equal to God and colonize other planets too. There are millions of other planets being colonized right now in the same way in other galaxies. What makes earth's colonizing process unique is Satan's deception of Adam. Jesus is the God of planet earth. The Mormon hope is to marry, through a Mormon Temple ceremony, as many earth women as possible for eternal celestial marriage. In the resurrection all good Mormon men will call from the dead those women they married in a temple ceremony. They will then fly off to some uninhabited planet with their many polygamous wives and populate that planet.
Bible
The Bible teaches that Jesus is one of three separate personal beings who are divine. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equal and have always existed. The Bible view of the divinity of Christ is categorically different from all the above. We will one day share the divine pattern of moral conduct and be equal to God in righteousness but mankind will in no sense ever be considered divine or equal to God in nature. Jesus pro-existed His physical birth: Jn 1:15 + Lk 1:24-26; Jn 1:1. Jesus created ALL THINGS and therefore is not Himself created: Jn 1:3; Col 1:16,17; Heb 1:2,10. Rev 5:13,14 pictures a scene with all creation worshipping Jesus as God: Rev 5:13,14
This is from "The Interactive Bible" website It is a very good bible resource internet library.
Life in the Spirit
In the old days of the Jews, the law was taken literally. No one was apart from it. The longing to be set free from the law is woven throughout the written record of the Torah. When the One came to earth to do away with the old laws and old covenants, the Jews rejected Him. They would not accept a new covenant of the Messiah in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ's death fulfilled those laws. "... God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that were against us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." (Colossians 2:13-15)
Therefore, those who are in Christ Jesus must live by the spirit. Christ said in John 6:63, "The Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken are spirit and they are life." A life that is controlled by the law is not in Christ, but a life guided by the Spirit dwells with Him who died and took the laws with Him so we can live freely in His life.
