Jesus as the Son of God

Barth

Barth: Everything we know about God is revealed to us through Christ since he is the direct revelation of God.

With specific reference to miracles, Barth writes that "it does not matter if the serpent really spoke [to Adam and Eve], what matters is what the serpent said". In this, he can be used to support the fact that it is not the miracle in and of itself that we should focus on, but, Jesus' words surrounding it.

McGrath:

Arguing that it is "impossible to talk about God, salvation or, worship without bringing Jesus into the discussion" McGrath posits that "God is revealed finally and supremely through Christ". In this sense, like Barth, McGrath believes that Jesus is the Son of God and that anything that he does (teach wisdom, politically liberate, etc.) is secondary to his primary role which is divine revelation. With specific reference to miracles, McGrath writes that "Christians believe Jesus performed extraordinary miracles and modern science makes these events all the more remarkable." because we are still unable to explain them

Richard Dawkins:

Does not reject the existence of a historical Jesus, but, completely rejects the divine nature of his existence stating instead that Jesus is simply a good moral teacher. For Dawkins, the divine element of Jesus' life is a superfluous belief given that there is no evidence for this. Connect to Hume "a wise man proportions his belief to the evidence"

Arianism:

Rejection of the notion of the Trinity. The foundational premise of Arianism is the uniqueness of God, who is alone self-existent (not dependent for its existence on anything else) and immutable; the Son is not self-existent, and cannot therefore be the self-existent and immutable God.

Application of scripture

Mark 6:47–52 (calming the storm): supports the idea that Jesus is the Son of God because: Shows that Jesus is the Son of God as he is able to control the laws of nature which is impossible for mere mortals to do Shows that Jesus had knowledge of his ability to do the humanly impossible when he reassures his disciples "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." This confidence of Christ indicates that he had knowledge of his divinity. John 9:1–41 (healing the man born blind): supports the idea that Jesus is the Son of God because: He was able to perform a medical impossibility by physically healing the blind man He was symbolically healing the spiritually blind when he said "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." Indicating that Jesus held a level of divinity in that he has knowledge of, and the ability to undertake, eschatological judgment based on someone's faith which only God can do.

The Church's view

• The council of Chalcedon introduced the concept of the hypostatic union, propounding that Jesus is both fully God and fully human.

The Church of England holds that: "God has revealed himself most clearly through the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ", this leads to an obvious conclusion that the CoE believes that Jesus' actions on Earth showed he was divine.

• Catholic Church**:** With Cathesism it states "In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word". Showing that Jesus represents the word of God and is therefore divine