Page 17 - Christology - Student Textbook

Study Section 4: Historicity of Jesus’ nature—His personality—as
revealed from the Scriptures.

4.1. Connect.

I enjoy reading my Bible and books about theology. I learn profound truths concerning the
nature of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I learn about the
redemptive plan of God for man is grounded on the personality and work of Jesus Christ.
This knowledge brings me to my knees in awe of God because by faith in Him and His work,
my eternal salvation is secured. Would you mind joining me as I discuss on the personality and work
of Jesus Christ as revealed from the Scriptures?

4.2. Objectives.

1. The student should be able to describe the personality and work of Jesus Christ as
revealed from the Scriptures.

2. The student should be able to evaluate in light of Scripture the false teachings of those
who hold errant doctrines about Christ

3. The student should be able to apply principles from those biblical passages which reveal the
personality and work of Jesus Christ.

4.3. The Historicity of Jesus’ Personality Grounded on the Scriptures.

Noted English journalist and satirist, Malcom Muggeridge notes that empires rose and fell,
wealth was accumulated and then disbursed, and one nation dominated and then another.
Shakespeare speaks of the “rise and fall of great ones that ebb and flow with the moon.” In
his lifetime, Muggeridge saw his countrymen yearn to get mightier and America wealthier. In
terms of military weaponry, he saw America more powerful than all the rest of world put
together. If America wished, they could have outdone an Alexander or Julius Caesar in the range and
scale of their conquests. “All in one little lifetime. All gone, gone with the wind.” Ravi Zacharias
quotes, “Behind the debris of these solemn supermen, and self-styled imperial diplomatists, there
stands the gigantic figure of one, because of whom, by whom, in whom and through whom alone,
mankind may still have peace: The person of Jesus Christ. I present him as the way, the truth, and
the life.”

Historical Heresies Concerning the Deity of Jesus Christ

Ebionism
The teachings of the Ebionites, who are thought to have come from the early Christian Jewish
movement, include among other things, the rebuttal of a virgin birth. “At baptism, Christ descended
upon Jesus in form of a dove,” “He was the predestine Messiah. . . rather in a natural or human
sense.” Further, the Ebionites refuted the “authority of Paul’s letters” and “all references to the
preexistence, the virgin birth, and the qualitatively unique status and function of Jesus.”
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38 Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2 ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1998), 710-11.
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