Are Jesus and God the same person? Or as proposed by an earlier comment, is Jehovah of old Jesus of today? What does the Bible say?? It's clear that they are two different individuals. Jesus of today is still subject to his father, the Almighty, and there is a vast amount of scriptural proof. Read what the Bible says:
Jesus’ opposers accused him of making himself equal to God. (John 5:18; 10:30-33) However, Jesus never claimed to be on the same level as Almighty God. He said: “The Father is greater than I am.”—John 14:28.
Jesus’ early followers did not view him as being equal to Almighty God. For example, the apostle Paul wrote that after Jesus was resurrected, God “exalted him [Jesus] to a superior position.” Obviously, Paul did not believe that Jesus was Almighty God. Otherwise, how could God exalt Jesus to a superior position? —Philippians 2:9.
"This means everlasting life, their coming to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3) This scripture alone should be enough to satisfy the argument. But there are plenty more.. BTW, here is the KJV, word for word: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." John 17:3, (KJV) There is no confusing wording here. It's plain English, showing the distinction between Jesus and his Father, the Almighty.
Jesus’ disciples had no doubt that he was the promised Messiah. (John 1:41) For example, Simon Peter said to Jesus: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16)
The Bible teaches that Jesus lived in heaven for a long time before he came to earth. Micah said that the Messiah was “from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2) Note that it does not say that he had no beginning, as is the case of the Creator.
Jesus is very precious to Jehovah. Why? Because God created him before everything and everyone else. So Jesus is called “the firstborn of all creation.” *(Colossians 1:15) Jesus is also precious to Jehovah because he is the only one Jehovah created directly. That is why he is called the “only-begotten Son.” (John 3:16) Jesus is also the only one Jehovah used to create all other things. (Colossians 1:16) And only Jesus is called “the Word,” because Jehovah used him to give messages and instructions to angels and humans.—John 1:14.
Some people believe that Jesus and God are the same person. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says that Jesus was created, which means that Jesus had a beginning. But Jehovah, who created all things, had no beginning. (Psalm 90:2) As God’s Son, Jesus never thought of trying to be God. The Bible clearly teaches that the Father is greater than the Son. (Read John 14:28;1 Corinthians 11:3.) Only Jehovah is “God Almighty.” (Genesis 17:1) He is the greatest and most powerful person in the universe.
Jehovah and his Son, Jesus, worked closely together for billions of years before the heavens and the earth were created. They must have loved each other very much! (John 3:35; 14:31) Jesus imitated his father’s qualities so well that the Bible calls him “the image of the invisible God.”—Colossians 1:15.
Jesus referred to himself as “God’s Son” or “the Son of God.” (John 10:36; 11:4) Jesus never identified himself as Almighty God.
Moreover, Jesus prayed to God. (Matthew 26:39) And while teaching his followers how to pray, Jesus said: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified.”—Matthew 6:9.
1 Corinthians 11:3, KJV: "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God."
Jesus revealed God’s name when he quoted an ancient passage of Scripture and said: “Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.”—Mark 12:29;Deuteronomy 6:4.
Jehovah has made it very clear that Jesus is the Messiah. God promised to give John the Baptizer a sign so that he would know who the Messiah was. When Jesus went to John to get baptized in the Jordan River in the year 29 C.E., John saw that sign. The Bible tells us what happened: “After being baptized, Jesus immediately came up from the water; and look! the heavens were opened up, and he saw God’s spirit descending like a dove and coming upon him. Look! Also, a voice from the heavens said: ‘This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.’” (Matthew 3:16, 17)
And now for a little grammar / translation lesson: One example of a Bible verse that is often misused is John 1:1. In the King James Version, that verse reads: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God [Greek, ton the·onʹ], and the Word was God [the·osʹ].” This verse contains two forms of the Greek noun the·osʹ (god). The first is preceded by ton (the), a form of the Greek definite article, and in this case the word the·onʹ refers to Almighty God. In the second instance, however, the·osʹ has no definite article. Was the article mistakenly left out? ...
The Gospel of John was written in Koine, or common Greek, which has specific rules regarding the use of the definite article. Bible scholar A. T. Robertson recognizes that if both subject and predicate have articles, “both are definite, treated as identical, one and the same, and interchangeable.” Robertson considers as an example Matthew 13:38, which reads: “The field [Greek, ho a·grosʹ] is the world [Greek, ho koʹsmos].” The grammar enables us to understand that the world is also the field.
What, though, if the subject has a definite article but the predicate does not, as in John 1:1? Citing that verse as an example, scholar James Allen Hewett emphasizes: “In such a construction the subject and predicate are not the same, equal, identical, or anything of the sort.”
Many Greek scholars and Bible translators acknowledge that John 1:1 highlights, not the identity, but a quality of “the Word.” Says Bible translator William Barclay: “Because [the apostle John] has no definite article in front of theos it becomes a description . . . John is not here identifying the Word with God. To put it very simply, he does not say that Jesus was God.” Scholar Jason David BeDuhn likewise says: “In Greek, if you leave off the article from theos in a sentence like the one in John 1:1c, then your readers will assume you mean ‘a god.’ . . . Its absence makes theos quite different than the definite ho theos, as different as ‘a god’ is from ‘God’ in English.” BeDuhn adds: “In John 1:1, the Word is not the one-and-only God, but is a god, or divine being.” Or to put it in the words of Joseph Henry Thayer, a scholar who worked on the American Standard Version: “The Logos [or, Word] was divine, not the divine Being himself.”
To illustrate, Hewett uses 1 John 1:5, which says: “God is light.” In Greek, “God” is ho the·osʹ and therefore has a definite article. But phos for “light” is not preceded by any article. Hewett points out: “One can always . . . say of God He is characterized by light; one cannot always say of light that it is God.” Similar examples are found at John 4:24, “God is a Spirit,” and at 1 John 4:16, “God is love.” In both of these verses, the subjects have definite articles but the predicates, “Spirit” and “love,” do not. So the subjects and predicates are not interchangeable. These verses cannot mean that “Spirit is God” or “love is God.”
Does the identity of God have to be “a very profound mystery”? It did not seem so to Jesus. In his prayer to his Father, Jesus made a clear distinction between him and his Father when he said: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3) If we believe Jesus and understand the plain teaching of the Bible, we will respect him as the divine Son of God that he is. We will also worship Jehovah as “the only true God.”
So, as requested, I've stuck with the Bible and provided quite a few scriptures that make it clear that "Jehovah of old" is definitely not "Jesus of today"! They are two distinct individuals, and there are many many more scriptures that I could have shared to give further proof. I hope that this has been helpful for anyone looking for answers to what the Bible really says on the subject!
Mark
