1.2.2.12 John 10:33 and John 5:18 (Makest thyself God):

"Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God."

"Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God."

The first of these two passages is actually a continuation of a previous verse which we have already studied. However, due to their popularity they shall be dealt with separately.

When people quote such verses as these in an attempt to prove that Jesus is God they follow them up with the proclamation that Jesus (pbuh) "must have" claimed to be God. They reason, how else could his enemies accuse him of blasphemy? If his enemies claim that he said it then the claim must be true.

The problem with this line of logic is that these people had a vested interest in accusing Jesus (pbuh) of anything that would drive the people away from him. He was becoming too much of a folk hero and too many people were beginning to rally around him. They had to come up with a "scandal" in order to try and achieve some sort of damage control.

In any court of law in the USA there is what is called a "hostile witness." A hostile witness is a witness for the prosecution who stands to gain by the defendants loss. For this reason, such witnesses testimony is never placed on the same footing as that of any truly objective or unbiased witness.

Indeed, if we are to accept these people's claim that Jesus (pbuh) claimed to be God, simply because they claim that he said it, then we will need to be consistent and believe them in everything they have to say about him. For example, they describe him as a glutton and an alcoholic in Matthew 11:19. They say that he was in league with Satan in Mark 3:22. In John 8:48 they claim that he was a Samaritan and possessed by a demon. They insist that he was out of his mind in Mark 3:21. Similarly, they described John the Baptist as having a demon in him (Matthew 11:18), ..etc. Are all of these claim true? Please read section 6.3 (point number 9) for more on this issue.

One needs to ask, why then would they want to fabricate such preposterous claims against their prophets? The reason is that if they could make one of their claims stick then they would be able to find a legal excuse to execute God's prophets without fueling a riot, making them martyrs, and causing a popular uprising against their own corruption (Matthew 23). If we read the Bible we will find it chock-full of such accusations. When one did not stick they would try another, and then another. As the popular saying goes, if at first you don't succeed, try try again.

Explicit Statement Implicit Statement

God is ONE Isaiah 43:10-11, Deuteronomy 4:39, Isaiah 45:18, Isaiah 44:6, Isaiah 45:6, Isaiah 45:22, Exodus 20:3, Exodus 34:14

God is TWO John 1:1,

John 10:30

John.10:33,

John 5:18 John 20:28,

John.14:6,

John 14:8-9

God is THREE 1 John 5:7 Matthew 28:19,

I Corinthians 12:4-6,

II Corinthians 13:14,

Jude 1:20-21

God is MANY Genesis 1:26