How Jesus Became God

When we meet together each Sunday, at the opening of the service, it is quite common for presiding brothers in their public prayers to give thanks to God for the fact that we are able to meet together in “peace and safety.” That portion of their prayer concerning our being able to meet together in “peace and safety” is something that we can easily take for granted. These prayers remind us that we live in a country where we do not have to worry about being physically attacked by religious adversaries or arrested by our government for simply showing up here each Sunday to worship God according to our consciences. But for many people, for many centuries, in various lands,… for them this wasn’t always the case.

Case in point: Michael Servetus. Servetus was a Spanish physician who lived approximately 500 years ago. He is credited for being the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation. For those of you who are not in the medical field, what this means is that he was the first to recognize how blood is pumped by the heart to the lungs to be oxygenated. The blood is then returned from the lungs back to the heart to repeat the cycle all over again. It’s an amazing process which is essential to keeping us alive, and it’s amazing that he first recognized this some 500 years ago.

But this medical discovery isn’t what Michael Servetus is best known for. Instead, he is best known to historians for what happened to him in the year 1553. Michael Servetus is best known to historians as a writer, and it was his writings that got him into trouble. Besides being a physician, Servetus was an occasional Christian writer, and it was his Christian writings that got him into trouble—really big trouble—with the religious and secular authorities.

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Author: Philip P. Kapusta

Keywords: Homoousios, Homoiousian, Homoousion, homoiousios, Athanasius, Nicene Creed, Nicean Creed, Trinity, Deity of Jesus, Divinity of Jesus, Creed, Church Creeds, Nicea, Nicaea, Council of Nicaea, 325 AD, Council of Nicea, Arius, Arian, Arian heresy, Arian controversy, Arianism, Athanasian, Athanasian Creed, Logos, Word made flesh, Jesus is the Word, Tri-unity, Pre-existent word, Pre-existence, Pre-existent, Jesus is God, God the Son, Three in one, God in three persons, Deity of Christ, Doctrine of the Trinity, trinitarian, trinitarian doctrine, God manifest in the flesh, God manifestation, Word incarnate, Incarnate word, Incarnate, incarnation, consubstantial, cosubstantial, consubstantiality, christology, christological, Christological debate, debate trinity, trinity debate, trinitarian debate, monotheism, one god, three persons, god in the flesh

Bible reference(s): Isa 9:6, Mat 1:23, Mat 28:19, John 1:1-4, John 3:13, John 5:23, John 6:33, John 6:38, John 6:51, John 6:58, John 6:62, John 8:23, John 8:28, John 8:58, John 10:17-18, John 10:30, John 14:9, John 17:5, John 20:28, Rom 9:5, Philippians 2:6, Col 1:15-16, Eph 4:8-10, Heb 1:2, Heb 1:8, Heb 7:3, 1 John 4:3, 1 John 5:7-8, 1 John 5:20, Rev 3:14

Source: from a lecture given in Richmond, Virginia, on June 18, 2017.

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