I went back to refresh my memory on the controversy of Jesus’ divinity. I thought that the issue really wasn’t argued that much anymore. Boy was I wrong! There are entire books still coming out on the subject.
Mark Roberts wrote an extensive series of blogs on the subject filled with historical perspective and it is quite good. It is on www.patheos.com if anyone is interested.
I am going to approach this from a completely different perspective and start from Revelation 12. Here it is so that we can reference it throughout this blog.
Revelation 12 King James Version (KJV – Public Domain)
12 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The aspect that always draws me back to Revelation 12 is the more concrete imagery used and the fact that it is not focused on the future, but gives us a picture of what happened at a much larger scale during Jesus’ time on Earth.
First, we can see from this imagery that God sees things from varying perspectives. He sees things from the grand scope of the universe and the individual galaxies down to the quarks that make up atoms. He sees the nation of Israel as one spiritual body, though He knows each person of that nation individually. It is kind of like how we refer to Great Britain or France or how the rest of the world refers to the United States. They say things like, “Those Americans are so arrogant.” They know, or hopefully they know, that the United States is made up of many different kinds of people, but we are referred to as one people.
So, in Revelation 12, we see the nation of Israel, from the spiritual line of Abraham and all those who followed the spirit of the Law given to Moses prior to the birth of Jesus. Israel, a small spiritual being compared to the dragon, gives spiritual birth to Jesus. His physical birth, which ties him even further to mankind, of course takes place through Mary. Israel is shown as localized in our solar system, clothed by the sun and standing on the moon.
Satan, however, is made up of a third part of the stars of heaven. In our current understanding of the universe we know we are talking about at least billions of angels spanning across physical space and time.
The second perspective we can see is time. When Jesus was taken up into heaven, where Word of God lives, he was still seen as an infant at around 33 earth years old. If we date the spiritual birth of Israel back to when Abraham was promised descendants as plentiful as grains of sand to when she was of age to bear her spiritual son, we can see that the spiritual perspective of time is very different from ours. It is estimated that the Earth time between that promise to Abraham to the birth of Jesus was approximately 2018 years. Yes, it is interesting that on that scale Jesus is reaching spiritual adulthood now, but don’t go standing on street corners proclaiming the end of the world. God seems to get a chuckle out of those who “know” the end is coming.
Now, here is the most important perspective from Revelation 12. We see the spiritual part of how Jesus is the only begotten son of God. Word of God procreated a son with Man both spiritually and physically. The being that was God in time combined with the spirit of Israel and a being was born that was both Son of God and Son of Man. From then on, God would look upon His son and see Himself within Him. All those that would join themselves to His son, would be joining themselves to Him. Jesus fully integrated himself with the Word of God by fully completing the will of the Word of God and thus became a fully integrated part of the Word of God that has been from the beginning of time.
Let’s look at this concept like this; the Bible is made up of over 60 separate pieces, yet it is one book. Each book joins a story that started with “In the beginning.” By being the begotten son of God and by fully completing the will of God, Jesus became fully part of the Word of God, thus part of He that created the universe and walked with Adam in the Garden.
It also changed everything for those on Earth. Satan’s role as accuser was removed. He would no longer stand before God and attempt to keep those he felt were unworthy out of heaven. No one would need to be measured up against the Law anymore. Those who joined Christ are now covered by his sacrifice.
Satan didn’t take this news very well according to this chapter of Revelation. He subsequently fought a war in heaven and lost and was forever cast into the physical universe and out of God’s presence. He looked to take out his anger on Israel and his initial wrath chased the Jews from Jerusalem marked by the Roman destruction of the temple. This persecution has continued through the centuries and had horrible consequences in Hitler’s Germany.
But, as Satan knows, he has already lost. According to later chapters of Revelation, Satan will try again to fight the forces of heaven, but really the war has already been won. He will face Word of God himself, Jesus, in the final battle and be destroyed with a word from Jesus mouth.
I hope this look at Revelation 12 doesn’t leave you feeling like a tiny speck in the universe. God sees all perspectives. He sees you in your individuality and within His only begotten son.
God bless.
Treasure In Heaven 