Does the NT Teach that Jesus is God? (White vs Malik)

All right, good evening, everyone. I think we're ready to get started, our debate this evening. It's a great privilege to welcome you all here. We've had calls from all over the place, from around the New York metropolitan area and New Long Island and upstate New York and New Jersey.

So we welcome all of you who have come a long distance to be here with us tonight. It's a great privilege for our church to welcome you. My name is Richard Liverance, and I'm the pastor of the Bible Baptist Church, and I'm gonna serve as tonight's moderator.

And I'm gonna try to commit myself to impartiality. I'm just here to direct the debate and to kind of govern and make sure that we stay on task. My job is not to give you my thoughts about the issue at hand, but simply to direct these two wonderful gentlemen who have joined us tonight.

I personally affirm that Jesus Christ is the only true God and that salvation may be secured only through his name, but I will commit myself to that impartiality for the terms of this great debate. Before we begin tonight, I'd like to introduce to you Chris Arnzen, who is the Long Island representative for WMCA Radio.

He has organized Dr. White's speaking schedule on Long Island, and it's a great privilege to welcome him this evening.

Chris?

Good evening, everybody, and it's a blessing to be here tonight. And one of the main reasons that you all are blessed is I have laryngitis, and I won't be speaking a very long time. But I wanted to just let everyone know that James White can be heard on the radio station that I work for, WMCA Radio, every Thursday night on the voice of Sovereign Grace.

That's every Thursday night at 10 p .m. I wanted to also thank Shafi, who has become a friend of mine over the phone, who is one of the Muslims who helped organize this event. And he pursued me for about two years to make sure that I eventually fit this debate into James White's increasingly growing schedule.

And I'm glad that that has finally come to pass this year, and that we have finally gotten this debate worked into the program for James White's speaking engagements on Long Island. And I would like to thank all of you for coming out, Muslim, Christian, and I also am very pleased that some of the Roman Catholics who attended the Protestant Catholic debate on the Roman Catholic Mass, some of the Roman Catholics have attended this very event tonight as well.

And I'd like to thank them for being here. And I will now pass on the evening to our moderator, Pastor Richard Leverence. Thank you, and God bless you.

The Debate Question and the Speakers' Credentials

All right, thank you, Chris. All right, the question before us this evening is, does the New Testament teach that Jesus Christ is God? This debate is actually a very ancient debate that formally goes back to the fourth century of the church, even predating the rise of Islam.

It was this question which gave rise to the first church council held in Nicaea, which many of you are familiar with in 325 AD. It could be reasonably argued, however, that the debate really goes back to the very time of Christ himself.

The person and nature of Jesus Christ has always been under great scrutiny. In fact, no other personality in world history has been so hotly debated as Christ himself. The question is of the most profound nature.

If in fact it can be proven that Jesus Christ is truly God, then it is to him that all men will one day give an account. If he is not God, then he may simply be considered an influential teacher, a great prophet, or a moral example who taught us many principles for living.

Tonight, two representatives from two faiths will debate the question. James White representing the historic Christian faith, a faith which has fought for and maintained the deity of Jesus Christ throughout history, and Hamza Abdul Malik representing the faith of Islam, a faith whose very name means submission to God and which many Christians do not realize, but it holds and honors respect for Jesus as a great prophet but denies that he could be the one true God and denies that his deity was his message.

The debate tonight will focus exclusively.

On the New Testament.

This is not a debate about the Quran or the Muslim faith, but strictly a debate about what the New Testament teaches. Let me ask you, the audience, this evening to conduct yourselves as ladies and gentlemen.

You will hear things that will both encourage and upset you. You are to remain calm at all times and to show great respect for both presenters this evening as well as the individual representatives of the respective faiths in the audience this evening.

Before we begin, though, I want us to just take a moment of silent prayer, all right? In defense of the proposition this evening that the New Testament teaches that Jesus is God is Dr. James White. Dr. White is the co-founder and director of Alpha and Omega Ministries, a Christian apologetics organization founded in 1983.

The organization exists to engage opponents of biblical theology in dialogue and debate concerning the doctrines of the historic Christian faith. He is also a scholar in residence in the College of Christian Studies at Grand Canyon University, an adjunct professor at the Golden Gate Theological Seminary in Phoenix, Arizona, and professor of apologetics for Columbia Evangelical Seminary in Longview, Washington.

He has authored over a dozen books, including The Roman Catholic Controversy, Letters to a Mormon Elder, and The King James Only Controversy, and he was a critical consultant on the New American Standard Bible Update.

Dr. White, it's a privilege to have you with us this evening.

Thank you.

Opposing the proposition that the New Testament teaches that Jesus is God is Mr. Hamza Abdul-Malik. Mr. Malik is the president of the Islamic Propagation Center International in Queens, New York. He has devoted over 25 years to the research and compilation of information on the subject of comparative religions with special interest in Christology and the theology of the New Testament as it regards the person of Jesus.

He has represented Islam in open forums in many Jewish and Christian congregations throughout America and abroad. In 1988, he attended and instructed Dawah training classes offered by the Islamic Propagation Center International in Durban, South Africa.

Many of his lectures and debates are available on videocassettes. He has authored a booklet entitled The Mission of Jesus, To Whom Was He Sent? And Mr. Malik, a great privilege for us to welcome you tonight.

Well, we wanna get right on with the debate and let me just tell you how it's gonna operate. We're gonna have two sections of the debate and the first half of the debate this evening, each presenter will be allowed 30 minutes for opening statements, followed by 10 minutes each for rebuttal.

And then after that, we will take an offering for both of these gentlemen. We didn't charge an entrance fee or tickets to come in, but we are gonna take a freewill offering and I'll explain how that'll work in just a few moments after the debate begins.

And then we'll have a 10-minute break and then we need to come back and we will have then cross-examinations for an additional 40 minutes. And after that, we will open up and have closing statements and then open up to you, the audience, to have a chance to ask questions and receive answers from our presenters.

So, we will begin now with Dr. White who will be the first presenter.

James White's Opening Case for the Deity of Christ

It is truly an honor to be with you all this evening. I truly hope that all of us will, this evening, listen very carefully to what both sides say and we'll evaluate what is said in the basis of God's word.

The question that brings us together this evening is really an unfair one. I think there is truly no question as to what the New Testament teaches on this subject. When one lays aside traditions, prejudices, and other outside influences, the answer to the question is plain and unambiguous.

Think for just a moment with me about just some of the titles and descriptions used of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God, the Son of God, Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.

He is the Word of God. He is the Risen Lord. He is the Creator of all things, Sustainer of all things, the One for whom all things were made. He is worshipped by angels and men, and in fact, all creation itself.

He is the object of prayer and the author and finisher of our faith. He is given the name which is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee bows and every tongue swears allegiance. All the fullness of deity dwells in Him in bodily form.

All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him, and every thought is to be taken captive in obedience to Him. Paul describes Him as our great God and Savior, the eternally blessed God. John records Jesus' own words.

We identify Himself as the I Am, and Himself speaks of Jesus as the Word who existed eternally and is as to His being absolute deity. Thomas confesses Him as His Lord and His God. Peter calls Him God and Lord.

And the early church prays to Him and suffers in His name. Lord, God, Creator, Savior, Lamb of God, risen and coming King of kings and Lord of lords. Truly, there is no question of the New Testament's teaching on the deity of Christ.

So, why are we having a debate this evening? There is really only one reason. I believe that Islamic apologists do not accept the testimony of the New Testament. And they claim that the New Testament does not, in fact, teach the central and fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith.

But in light of just the summary of the New Testament's teaching I just gave, it is tremendously clear that to make the claim that they do, Islamic representatives must ignore the context of the New Testament itself, skip past the plethora of passages that teach the truth they do not believe, and most importantly, I believe, allow external authorities, such as the Quran and their own beliefs, to overthrow the plain testimony of Scripture.

Indeed, this is admitted by one Islamic writer who honestly said, quoting, speaking of the New Testament, quote, it is absolutely impossible to get the truth, the true religion, from these Gospels unless they are read and examined from an Islamic and Unitarian point of view, end quote.

That's Dawud, by the way. In other words, unless you assume the falsity of Christianity, ignore the context of the New Testament, and instead insert what you seek to prove, you'll never find the true religion in the New Testament.

But of course, that's circular argumentation, and I hope if my opponent follows the course plotted by this writer, that he recognizes that is circular argumentation, for he will have to assume his conclusion to arrive at it, and such is as much as to admit that one cannot engage this debate.

Instead, to carry the debate this evening, Mr. Malik will have to show, not by relying on the Quran, but from the text of the New Testament, that the consistent teaching found therein is that Jesus is but a mere human, a creature, a great prophet possibly, but not the exalted Lord, who is worshiped by every created thing in Revelation chapter five, verse 13.

This will involve one of two approaches. Either one can attack the veracity of the New Testament documents, or one can attack a straw man misrepresentation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the Christian doctrine of Christ.

In either case, I strongly encourage you, the listener, there's not a debate panel judge sitting here who's going to render some kind of decision. You are the judges here this evening. I strongly encourage you, the listener, to keep an eye on the ball, so to speak, and hold both of us to the same standard of the debate this evening.

The debate thesis states the New Testament teaches that Jesus Christ is God. Some might immediately be confused and think that Christians believe Jesus Christ to be the Father. We do not. Indeed, in just a matter of hours, literally, I will be debating a oneness Pentecostal scholar who believes this, but such is not the belief of historic Christianity, nor is it the testimony of the New Testament.

Jesus is not the Father. Therefore, all the passages that might be presented that distinguish between the Father and the Son, we as Christians embrace and believe, for they do not in any way prove that Jesus is not deity.

For example, the Apostle Paul plainly distinguished between the Father and the Son, yet he said that all the fullness of deity, a very strong term referring to that which makes God God, dwells in Christ in bodily form in Colossians 2 .9.

Now, since the Bible is inarguably monotheistic, and Christianity has always been and will always be absolutely monotheistic, confessing that there is but one true God, then it follows that the New Testament writers, such as Paul, were not professing Christ to be some second God, but were in fact Trinitarians, as all true Christians are here this evening.

But since so many are confused as to what the Trinity teaches, let me briefly define the doctrines so we can understand what the New Testament is telling us when it speaks of one God, yet three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Scriptures teach that there is but one true God, but the Scriptures likewise describe three divine persons as deity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is plainly seen in Jesus' instructions to the church, when he tells us to baptize in the name, singular, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Our Lord was not telling us to baptize in the name of God, a prophet and a force. Instead, three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, together share one divine Trinitarian name. The Scriptures then differentiate between God as one being and God as three persons.

Being and person are not the same categories of existence. All of us here this evening are human beings, or at least we all hope that's the case. I haven't seen anyone sneaking in the back that's worrying me at the moment.

We're all human beings. We can all understand what's being said. We all have the same level of existence, but each of us is a different person. We make the distinction between being and person every day, and we must do so here as well.

But as it is my job this evening to establish the divine truth that the New Testament conclusively presents the deity of Christ, allow me to invest most of my time in that task. I believe we will all benefit greatly, however, by remembering this thought.

As we examine many texts from the New Testament this evening, always ask yourself this question. Could the words of Scripture be applied to a mere creature if indeed Jesus Christ is not, as Christians have always believed, the incarnate one, the divine Son of God?

That is, could a mere creature ever say the things Jesus says? Could a mere creature say, come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest? Could a mere creature say, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father?

Would a mere creature ask that you put your faith and trust in Him for eternal salvation? Can we worship a mere creation, pray to a mere creation, bear the name as Christians of a mere human being? Keep this in mind as we examine many of the texts of the sacred Scriptures here this evening.

Now I'd like to divide the passages we'll look at into a couple of different categories. First of all, and obviously most central to our debate this evening, passages that specifically describe Jesus Christ as God.

We think of Thomas when he sees the resurrected Lord in John 20, verse 28. His confession of faith as the Lord Jesus identified it was, my Lord and my God. If Jesus was not truly God, Thomas' words were inappropriate and Jesus should have rebuked him immediately.

But Jesus did not rebuke him. Instead, he accepted his confession as a confession of faith. In Titus 2, verse 13, the Apostle Paul refers to the blessed hope that Christians have, and that is the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He is our great God and Savior. And Paul is a monotheistic Jew. He is not going to call a mere prophet or a mere man his great God and Savior. And Peter used the exact same language in 2 Peter 1, verse 1, when he spoke of receiving a faith of the same like preciousness as the other Christians in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

God and Savior. Both terms grammatically connected to the one person, Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul likewise, in describing the Lord Jesus in Romans 9, verse 5, in the New King James Version of the Bible says, of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all the eternally blessed God, amen.

Here, Paul describes the Lord Jesus as the eternally blessed God. In Hebrews 1, the writer to the Hebrews, in verse 6, talks about how all the angels of God worship Christ. And then in verse 8, he refers to Christ as God.

Here, God the Father refers to Christ as God. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. And obviously, if God Himself refers to Christ as God, I think we should as well. Even the prophet Isaiah, writing 700 years before Christ, was given a vision of the grandeur of Christ.

And there he described the coming Messiah as the mighty God. The mighty God. A term that is used in the very next chapter of Isaiah of the true God Himself. And cannot be used of a mere creature. One of my favorite passages is in Paul's letter to the Colossians, where in describing the Lord Jesus, he says, for in Him, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.

The Greek term, theatetas, deity, means that which makes God, God. And it dwells in Jesus Christ, the resurrected Jesus Christ, in bodily form. There could be no stronger way that the New Testament writers could identify Jesus as God.

But this is just one way in which they do so. In Philippians chapter two, verses five through seven, we have there a presentation of Paul's theology of who Jesus Christ was before he came to earth. That is, in those passages, very plainly as presented to us, Jesus, before the incarnation, before He voluntarily makes Himself of no repute and enters into human flesh, He was active.

He did not regard the equality that He had with God a thing to be grasped or to be held onto. But instead, out of love for us, He emptied Himself. Obviously, therefore, He existed before His birth in Bethlehem, and He had equality with the Father.

In Revelation chapter 22, verse 13, Jesus is described as the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. These are terms used to describe God frequently in the Old Testament.

And they're also terms used to describe the Almighty God in Revelation chapter one, verses seven through eight. How could one writer describe Jesus as the Alpha and Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end, while He had already described the Almighty God that way?

Because, for that writer, Jesus Christ is the Almighty God. But one of the most important things, from my perspective, I think, is that the New Testament plainly teaches that Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things.

And my friends, that means that Jesus Christ is your Creator. You exist today because of the power and ability and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every breath you take, every heartbeat that is yours is yours because Jesus Christ gives it to you.

In Colossians chapter one, Jesus Christ is described in words where the Apostle Paul literally exhausts the Greek language to communicate his point. He says, for by Him were all things made, whether in the heavens or the earth, visible, invisible, all things, principalities, powers, dominions, authorities, all things are created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

My friends, that's the Creator. The Creator of all things. And indeed, all things consist or hold together through the power of Jesus Christ. He wrote that letter specifically because there were people who were wanting to say, oh, Jesus is very special, Jesus is very nice, but He's not truly deity, and Paul corrected their misapprehensions.

Likewise, in Hebrews chapter one, Jesus is described as the Creator of all things, both in verses two and three, as well as in verses 10 through 12. And plainly, in John chapter one, a passage many of you are very familiar with, the fact that Jesus Christ is God and the Creator of all things is presented to us.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and apart from Him was not anything made which has been made.

The fact that Jesus Christ is eternal. The phrase specifically in John 1 .1 says in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was indicates eternal preexistence. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

There was relationship between the Father and the Son. And the Word was God. As to His nature, He is deity. And that is why it can be said, apart from Him was not anything made which has been made. If He is but a mere creature, then obviously apart from Him many things have been made, but the New Testament writers will not allow for such an understanding.

Indeed, one of the great names of God in the Old Testament is the I Am. And Jesus uses this phrase of Himself. In John 8 .58 it says, Before Abraham was, I am. In John 13 .19, He specifically cites from the Greek Septuagint at Isaiah 43 .10, which is speaking there about Jehovah God and applies it to Himself.

In John 18 .5 -6, when the soldiers come to arrest Him in the garden, He says, who are you seeking? And the soldiers say, we're seeking Jesus. And His answer is, I am. And what happens? The soldiers fall back upon the ground when He utters those words.

Why would that have happened? Becomes very important to us to recognize that. Because in John 8 .24, Jesus says, unless you believe that I am, the Greek phrase is ego, I, me. Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

Those are Jesus' words. Those are Jesus' assertions, and we need to remember how important they are. Jesus is also the object of worship. Men should never worship anyone but God. But Jesus is the object of worship.

In Revelation 5 .11 -14, every created thing in heaven and earth and under the earth does what? Worships He who sits on the throne and the Lamb. How can Jesus be a created thing and worship Himself? Obviously, that is not a possibility.

The New Testament identifies Jesus as Jehovah God of the Old Testament. The writer to the Hebrews in Hebrews 1 .10 -12 quotes from the Old Testament. Look it up for yourself sometime. He quotes specifically Psalm 102 .25 -27.

That passage is about how God is the creator of all things. He's unchanging. Everything that He's made will pass away. But God remains the same, and the writer to the Hebrews can take that passage, which is uniquely and only about the God of the Old Testament, and apply it to Jesus Christ in Hebrews 1 .10 -12.

What does that demand we understand about who Jesus is from that writer's perspective? In the same way, in John 12, there's a beautiful passage where Jesus is ending His public ministry. And He's about to hide Himself from the people.

He has just actually ended it, and He has now hidden Himself. And John is commenting on the fact that even though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they were not believing in Jesus. And he explains why.

And he quotes two passages, one from Isaiah 53, and one from Isaiah 6 .10. And then he makes a little comment, and a lot of us miss it, but it's beautiful. He makes a little comment. He said, these things Isaiah said, because he saw His glory and he spoke about Him.

Where did Isaiah see Jesus' glory? Go back to the passage he just cited. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah saw Jehovah sitting upon His throne. He saw His glory. When you ask Isaiah, Isaiah, whose glory did you see?

Isaiah said, Jehovah. When you ask John, whose glory did Isaiah see? John's answer is, Jesus. You don't make that kind of application to a mere creature. It would indeed be blasphemous. Now, the vast majority of errors made by those who attempt to deny the deity of Christ are based on their failure or refusal to allow for the biblical fact that Jesus was both God and man, the eternal and divine Word who became flesh, John 1 .14.

This is seen in those who cite such passages as Mark 13 .32, where the incarnate Son says that the knowledge of the day or the hour of His return is known to the Father in heaven alone. That is, it is divine knowledge, and as the Lord had not yet returned to the presence of the Father, He rightly says that it is not currently within the sphere of His self-limited knowledge.

Remember, Jesus said the disciples should have rejoiced that He was returning back to the presence of the Father because the Father was in a greater position in heaven than the Son was while on earth, John 14 .28.

As we saw, the Son voluntarily took that position wherein He laid aside the exercise of divine prerogatives which would include divine knowledge. To say that the Son is not God because He laid aside the privilege of divine knowledge makes as much sense as saying the Father is not God because He does not know what it's like to be a human or to eat food.

The Father and the Son took different roles in bringing about the redemption of God's people. Those differing roles distinguish between the Father and the Son, but they do not tell us that the Son is any less deity than the Father.

The same is true when people cite passages from John 5 to attempt to deny the deity of Christ. For example, Jesus said in John 5 .19, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, "'the Son can do nothing of Himself "'unless it is something He sees the Father doing.

"'Whatever the Father does, "'these things the Son also does in like manner.'". Some mistakenly think this means that the one described as the creator of all things who has all power and authority is, in fact, without power at all.

But such misses the entire point of the passage at hand. Instead, Jesus is not denying His power or deity in these words, but is insisting upon the absolute and perfect unity that exists between the Father and the Son.

When He says He can do nothing of Himself, literally af healtu, from Himself, it could just as easily be said that the Father does nothing from Himself apart from the Son. It is their perfect union that forms the context found in John 5 .17 -18, where the Son claims the same divine right to be active on the Sabbath day as the Father.

This is the same thing as to say I and the Father are one, for in both passages, it is the perfect, complete, transcendent divine unity that is in view, no matter how often people miss this plain truth.

Finally, the exact same divine truth of the Incarnation, so clearly and inarguably revealed in Philippians 2 .5 -7 and in John 1 .14, explains the often misunderstood words of Jesus at John 20 .17, where He speaks after His resurrection from the dead of the Father as His God.

Again, such words make perfect sense in the context of Scripture. What else would we expect the resurrected Christ to say? Is the Incarnate One an atheist? As a perfect man, does He not have God? Does He not worship God?

And as the resurrected Lord, does Jesus all of a sudden become an atheist? Jesus was resurrected from the dead, hence He is still the God-Man, and as such, speaks of His Father and His God. And within only a few verses, Thomas will express the faith of all true believers when he bows in adoration and confesses.

The Lord Jesus as His Lord and His God. Another often made error regarding the testimony of the Lord Jesus and His deity has to do with Jesus' words in John 17 .3. Here the Lord Jesus prays the Father and He calls the Father the only true God and says that to have life eternal, men must know the Father and they must know the One sent by the Father, Jesus Christ.

Some quickly pass over the fact that here Jesus says that life eternal involves knowing both the Father and the Son. And they likewise ignore the testimony to the deity of Christ, plainly found in verse five as well.

Instead, they focus on Jesus' description of the Father as the only true God and mistakenly assume that this must mean that only the Father is deity. This is a simple logical error that again confuses the categories of being in person.

Since Jesus, like all Christians today, was a monotheist, He believed that there was only one true being of God. He worshiped that one true God, His Father, who is in heaven. But saying that there is only one true God is not the same as saying, and the Father alone is true deity.

Indeed, how else again would we expect the incarnate Son to address the Father? If for a moment we just theorize that John 1 .14 is true and the eternal Word who is God became flesh, how would the God-man speak?

Would he say, you, Father, are just one of many gods? Of course not. In the same way, Jesus was not denying His own participation in the divine being when He properly addressed His Father here any more than He did in John 20 .17.

This is exactly how the incarnate one, Emmanuel, God with us, would speak. Those who make this error must be reminded that their own view must be tested by the exact same standard. That is, if they wish to say that Jesus is a mere creature, then please explain how it is that life eternal is gained by knowing the Almighty God and a mere creature joined on equal footing with the Creator.

And how is it that in just a matter of 14 words later, the Lord Jesus asks the Father to glorify Him together with the Father, with the glory they shared together before the world was? What creature, may I ask, shares the glory of the Almighty before creation itself?

No creature, but the incarnate Son of God was the Word at that time and was indeed glorious in the presence of the Father. Another example of how some people can completely miss the context of the passage is found in the citation of Mark 10, 17 -18.

Here we read, quote, as he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone, end quote. Some mistakenly think that Jesus is here denying His own deity and denying His own goodness. Yet, is this not the same Jesus who said in John 8, 46, who convicts me of sin?

Indeed, one must miss the entire thrust of the passage to think that Jesus here denies He is good. Rather, the import is clear, the young man does not know with whom he is dealing. He is not asking some human teacher, but God Himself, the very One who gave the commandments to which He now makes reference, and who knows this man's heart and knows that He, in fact, is engaged in idolatry, for He loves His possessions more than He loves God.

Remember, Mark had already recorded Jesus' claim to be able to forgive sins in Mark 2, 5 -7, which is clearly a divine right. I would like to leave my opening presentation with one particular passage of Scripture.

John 1, verse 18. In the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, we read, no one has ever seen God. It is God, the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made Him known. I submit to you that no one can understand this passage, apart from the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

Why? Well, it says no one has ever seen God, and yet we have numerous examples in the Old Testament where men did. What are they referring to? Well, it is the Father who has not been seen. But here in this passage, God, the only Son.

God, the Son, Jesus Christ, who is close to the Father's heart, who is at the Father's side. He is the one who makes the Father known. If we want to know who the Father is, if we want to know who He is truly, then we must know Him as He has been revealed by Jesus Christ.

But my friends, a mere creature cannot provide a perfect revelation of the infinite God. And so we either have no perfect revelation of the infinite God, or as the New Testament says, it is God the Son who has made the Father known.

Literally the term that is used there means to exegete, to make known, to explain. We know the Father loves us because there's been a perfect revelation made of Him by Jesus Christ. That is the Jesus Christ of Scripture.

The King of kings. The Lord of lords. It would be absolutely unthinkable for a person who believes what the Bible teaches, that there is only one true God, to ever say these words of a mere creature. When the angel showed John many great things in the book of Revelation, John began to bow down before the angel.

And the angel said, don't do that. Worship God alone. And yet in that same book, every created thing bows down in worship to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb Jesus Christ. That is the biblical New Testament truth of who Christ is.

He is the eternal Word made flesh. And why did He come? The eternal Word became flesh, Paul tells us in Philippians 2. To give His life a ransom for many. To do what we could not do to take the penalty of sin upon Himself.

Die in the place of God's people. Take my sin so that I may have His righteousness and may stand at peace with God, having eternal life. That is the New Testament message. Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. White. Mr. Malik, you'll now have 30 minutes to present.

Hamza Abdul-Malik's Opening Case Against the Deity of Christ

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wasalatu wasalamu ala Sayyidil Muslimeen wa ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma 'een. A 'udhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim. Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Rabbish rahli sadri, wa yusilli amri, wahlu uqtatin min nisani, yafquhu qali.

Qala Allahu ta 'ala, fil quran al-kareem. Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Qul huwa Allahu ahad, Allahu samad, lam yulid wa lam yulad, wa lam yakunnahu kufuwan ahad. Sadaqallah wa sadaqallahul adheem. Amma ba'd.

Mr. Chairman, to my esteemed opponent in this debate, Dr. White, to you, the believers, brothers and sisters in faith and in humanity, I greet you all with the greetings of peace, with the greetings of all the prophets who submitted themselves to Allah subhanahu wa ta 'ala.

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. May the peace and the mercy and the blessings of Allah be upon you all. I am honored to stand before you in the now of the proposition that Dr. White has sought to establish before you.

That is that the New Testament teaches that Jesus is God. Now, I didn't hear any definition of the term God. So let me begin my talk with that definition. Definition, God. In the New Testament, God is from the Greek word, and pardon me if I don't pronounce these terms correctly.

Dr. White is the specialist in that field. Theos, meaning divine or divine essence. This is the term God, this is what it means. And regarding the nature and the character of God in John chapter four verse 24, Jesus declares that God is spirit, spirit.