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In John 8:40, when Christ introduced Himself as man. He was still on earth. There is no question about that. What we are saying is that Christ became God or attained His divinity when He reached heaven.
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"Divinity upon ascension"


Letter to the Editor:
GOD'S MESSAGE, June 2004, p.4

WE,  AS  TRUE   CHRISTIANS,    accept    and believe in the verses of the Bible that you quote stating that Christ is man. However, it is very significant that the context and background of those verses be considered. In John 8:40, when Christ introduced Himself as man. He was still on earth. There is no question about that. What we are saying is that Christ became God or attained His divinity when He reached heaven.


Charles Garrett
NewYork, USA

Editor's reply:

Nowhere in the Bibie is it taught that Christ   became God   or    attained    divinity upon His ascension to heaven. On the contrary, the apostles testify that Jesus remained to be man in nature even when He reached heaven. In verses such as I Timothy 2:5 and Acts 2:22, among others for instance, the apostles directly declared that Christ is man.

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,    (1 Tim. 2:5, NKJV)

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— (Acts 2:22, NKJV)

Considering the background and context of these verses, we've learned that  these were  taught by the apostles when our Lord Jesus was already in heaven. If it were true that Christ attained divinity when He ascended to heaven, then the Apostles should have taught Him as God when they preached about Him.   But the apostles were consistent in their teaching. that Christ is indeed man, before and even  after His ascension to heaven.

Apostle Paul, in fact, teaches that  in heaven, Christ sits at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). And the Bible ascertains that the one who sits at the right hand of God, who is Christ, is a man, and therefore not another God:

"But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat  down at the right hand of God" (Heb. 10:12, New King James Version, emphasis ours)

The teaching that Christ  became God when He reached heaven contradicts what the Holy Scriptures teaches concerning the true Cod. Christ  Himself makes  it  clear that there is only one true God who is the Father (Jn. 17:1, 3). Before His ascension to heaven, Christ even said:

..... I am ascending to My Father and your Father  and  to   My God and your God." (John 20:17, NKJV)

If Christ became God   upon   His ascension to heaven, then there  would be two Gods—the  Father to whom Christ ascended (and whom Christ recognizes as His God) and Christ who ascended to His Father. This is definitely against what Christ Himself teaches regarding the true God.

While it is true that  the Savior's body, which was once perishable and mortal on earth, became imperishable or immortal in  heaven (1 Cor. 15:50-54),  this does  not mean that He became God. Because if He did, then those to be saved would also become gods, for the Holy Scriptures confirm that their bodies will be like the glorious body of Christ:

"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior  from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by  the  power  that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Phil. 3:20-21, New International Version)

The belief or teaching that Christ became God upon ascension to  heaven  is therefore unbiblical

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