Divine Sonship Of Jesus

The third Christian dogma is that Jesus Christ was the Son of God in a special and exclusive sense. The dogma of Divine Sonship of Jesus, also is not in conformity with the sayings and teachings of Jesus. In the Bible this expression has been used for many earlier prophets. For instance, Israel was called the “Son of God” in Exodus, and in the Psalms the same title was given to David (2:7) A little later in the Bible, Solomon also was called the Son of God (Chronicles, 22:10).

This phrase meant nothing more than nearness to God in love. Jesus himself said that every man who did the will of the Father in Heaven was a son of God. It was devout life and kind and merciful behavior of God:

“Love your enemies.. that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven.” (Matthew, 5:44-45).

“Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the sons of God.” (Matthew, 5:9).

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These sayings leave no doubt in our minds as to what this phrase meant for Jesus. Moreover, it has not been established that Jesus actually used the words of ‘son’ and ‘father’; because, as mentioned above, the word ‘father’ found its way to the Christian terminology at least a century later, and the four Gospels were written down in the same period. Even if we admit that he used these words, there is no justification for regarding Jesus as the Son of God, in an exclusive or unique sense. Jesus mostly called himself a “son of man”, but when he referred to himself as a “son of God”, it was no doubt in the same sense in which Adam, Israel, David and Solomon had been called the sons of God before him and in which he himself had spoken of those who had love in their hearts and lived in peace with their fellowmen as “sons of God.”

Jesus was obviously referring to Psalms 82; verses 6 and 7:

“I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High. But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.”

As the Judges and prophets of old were called ‘gods’ only in a metaphorical sense, so Jesus called himself a “Son of God” in the same sense. And, Luke speaks of Jesus as “son of Joseph” while giving his lineage, which goes down as “the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

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