Mark 12:29, Jesus Proves that He is God

MUSLIMS misquote Mark 12:29 to "prove" that Jesus is not God.

They claim that Jesus declared in the verse that "'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one."

And by that, Muslims say Jesus "denies" that He is God.

WRONG.

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First, Jesus DID NOT DENY His divinity in Mark 12:29. (http://sagot-sa-balik-islam.blogspot.com/2014/01/mark-1229-jesus-denied-he-was-god.html)

Second, instead of denying His divinity, Jesus confirmed that HE was GOD when HE RECITED MARK 12:29.

In the verse, Jesus quoted DEUTERONOMY 6:4, which says, "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is ONE."

Jesus was AFFIRMING that the LORD was GOD.

WHO was this "LORD" that DEUTERONOMY 6:4 was referring to?

He was the LORD who INTRODUCED HIMSELF to MOSES in EXODUS 3:13-14.

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EXODUS 3:13-14
But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?"

God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

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The LORD GOD in DEUTERONOMY 6:4 (MARK 12:29) is the "I AM" in EXODUS 3:13-14.

In JOHN 8:58, JESUS DECLARED that HE was the "I AM."

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 JOHN 8:58
Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I AM."

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Jesus DECLARED that He was the LORD GOD who INTRODUCED HIMSELF to MOSES.

Notice that JESUS SAID that He came "BEFORE" Abraham, who was the ANCESTOR of MOSES.

Obviously, GOD was the ONE who came BEFORE Abraham.

So, the DECLARATION of Jesus in JOHN 8:58 that HE was the "I AM" or the "LORD GOD" was CLEAR.

Therefore, when Jesus quoted MARK 12:29, He was simply declaring that HE was the ONE LORD, the ONE GOD, of ISRAEL.

MUSLIMS just DO NOT UNDERSTAND JESUS in MARK 12:29 because MUSLIMS are PREOCCUPIED with  FINDING FAULT in the BIBLE than UNDERSTANDING what the verse means.

Mark 12:29, Jesus Denied He was God?

MUSLIMS often cite Mark 12:29 as "proof" that JESUS DENIED that HE WAS GOD.

The verse reads: "Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one."

Is this really a denial of Jesus's divinity?

NO. THERE is NO SUCH DENIAL.

MUSLIMS TAKE MARK 12:29 OUT OF CONTEXT to DELIBERATELY MISQUOTE JESUS.

In MARK 12:29, JESUS was SIMPLY ANSWERING a QUESTION POSED by a SCRIBE or JEWISH LEADER.

MARK 12:28 says:
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?"

Jesus was ASKED about the "FIRST" OF ALL COMMANDMENTS.

So, JESUS SIMPLY CITED DEUTERONOMY 6:4.

That is why we read in MARK 12:29
"JESUS ANSWERED, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one."

DEUTERONOMY 6:4 SAYS:
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone."

The DIVINITY of JESUS was NEVER PUT in QUESTION. The SCRIBE only wanted to TEST JESUS'S KNOWLEDGE of SCRIPTURES and GOD'S COMMANDMENTS.

So, it is WRONG for MUSLIMS to CLAIM that JESUS was DENYING that HE WAS GOD in MARK 12:29. DIVINITY was NOT the ISSUE.

MUSLIMS should STOP MISQUOTING JESUS because MISQUOTING JESUS leads to LYING ABOUT JESUS.

Mark 10:18 (Jesus Denied that He is God?)

MUSLIMS who deny the divinity of the Lord Jesus sometimes use Mark 10:18 to prove that Christ denied that He was God.

The verse reads:

“Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”

The context of the verse is about a man who knelt before the Lord Jesus and then says to the Christ: "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Mark 10:17)

Muslims see the response of the Lord Jesus in Mark 10:18 as a rebuke or a contradiction to what the man said. To them, the Lord was saying, “I am not God, so don’t call me good.”

But did the Lord Jesus really rebuke the man for calling Him “Good”?

A. CHRISTIAN RESPONSE

THE words of the Lord Jesus in Mark 10:18 were neither a rebuke nor a contradiction to the man addressing Him with a term pertaining only to God.

A rebuke would have sounded like “DO NOT call me good. Only God is good” or “I am not good. Only God is good” or “Only God is good. I am not God.”

The Lord did not make such a clear, undeniable rebuke. What He did was ASK A QUESTION.

Often, questions are asked to raise clarifications or to challenge others to prove that they are sure of what they are saying or talking about.

When the Lord Jesus told the man “Why do you call me good? Only God is good”, He was telling the man, “You called me good. Only God is good. Are you acknowledging that I am God?”

The answer of the man to the question whether he was acknowledging the divinity of the Lord Jesus was important, especially if we read the answer of the Lord Jesus to his question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

In Mark 10:19, the Lord said, “You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.'"

Those were commandments given by God Himself to Moses. (Exodus 20:1-17) And to the mind of the man, he already fulfilled those commandments (Mark 10:20), thus he was already entitled to eternal life.

But then, the Lord Jesus did not stop there. He continued: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

Mark 10:22 says that when the man heard those words, “he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.”

“But why?” we might ask. Why should the man grieve at what the Lord Jesus said and especially because those were not part of the original commandments? One might even argue that since those were only the words of Jesus, it would not really matter? What was important was the man had obeyed the commandments of God.

Could the words of a “teacher”or a prophet or a ”servant” of God overrule the very commandments of God? Of course not!

The man was shocked and grieved because he did not see the Lord Jesus only as a simple “teacher” or “prophet,”but as the “Good Teacher.” “Good” meaning God as the Lord Jesus had pointed out.

The man believed that the Lord Jesus was God and that He had the authority to give “additional”commandments or to demand more on top of the commandments that He had already given.

So, when the Lord Jesus gave the “additional” commandment for the man to “go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor” (Mark 10:21), the man became sad because it was GOD who was telling him to do it.

Therefore, Mark 10:18 is not a denial of the divinity of the Lord Jesus. On the contrary, it is an affirmation of His Godhood.

Muslims, in their desire to disprove that the Lord Jesus is God, are seeing the opposite of what things really are.