I stand by my statements. None of the verses you quoted show that Jesus ever claimed equality with God. None of them. What you've done is you've told me what Jesus said and then you've told me what he meant.
John 12:44
44 And Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
This is proof that he claimed to be God? This verse is perfectly insync with what Muslims believe. To believe in the Prophets of God means to believe in God. What's clear is that Jesus says that to believe Jesus is to believe in the One who Sent Him. "The One Who Sent Him" is not Jesus. For one that believes in Jesus believes in God.
John 14:1
1 Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me.
What's explicit is that Jesus said to believe in God and also believe in him. Again, we are to believe in God and Jesus. Islam says the exact same.
If I told you that to believe the Earth rotates around the sun is to believe the Sun is the center of our Solar System, would that be grounds to say that the Earth and Sun are the same??
No! It simply means that to Believe one requires believing in the other. But that doesn't equate them.
John 5:18-19
18 For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only brake the sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner.
Let's look at what Jesus said, not what the Jews believed.
Jesus says clearly the reason he could say "Your sins are forgiven" is because "The Son can do nothing of himself" but whatever God tells him to do, he does it. We have evidence in that from these verses:
John 12:49
"For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak."
From this verse, it's clear why Jesus could say "Your sins are forgiven" and not be God. He only said what God told him to say. And therefore we cannot accuse him of claiming equality with God when he explains to us he only says what God tells him to say.
Now since it is established Jesus Only says what God told him to say, this must mean that God told Jesus (Pbuh) to tell a certain man that his sins were forgiven. So if God told Jesus to tell this man his sins were forgiven, does that mean Jesus is God?
No! If God told anyone that he/she could inform another person that his/her sins were forgiven, in no way is that person claiming to be God. For Jesus could not forgive sins without God's permission (we find proof of this in passages where Jesus says he does nothing unless God tells him to do so) but could inform people of what God told him to say.
John 8:58
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was born, I am".
Now, even if Jesus meant that he were alive before Abraham was alive, is that sufficient grounds to claim that he is God? If Jesus lived in heaven with God and then came down to earth, that might mean something remarkable, but it would not give sufficient grounds to claim unqualified deity.
If Jesus is God because he lived before Abraham was born, why isn't Jeremiah equal to God since the Bible tells us he had a prehuman existence.
"Before you were even formed in the Womb, I knew You"
(God Speaking)
So if Jeremiah had a prehuman existence, then he must be God as well.
To say Jesus is God simply because he lived before Abraham was born is to make serious assumptions. It also required you to believe Jeremiah is God since the Bible shows evidence that Jeremiah lived before his birth on this earth.
John 17:5
5 And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Again, just because Jesus (Pbuh) was alive before the world was, does that give him equality with God? Is that sufficient evidence that Jesus (Pbuh) is God simply because he was created before the world was??
Unless you can provide verses which show that anything created before the world was is equal to God, then I cannot believe Jesus claimed deity here. Being created before the world was does not imply equality with God. Is everything created before the world was equal to God??
May the Peace and Blessings of God Be Upon You
Ray
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