JESUS' CLAIM TO DIVINITY

This lesson confronts the central question of Christian faith with intellectual honesty and historical rigor: did Jesus merely inspire devotion, or did He consciously and deliberately claim divinity? Drawing from the Gospels—especially John—it demonstrates that Jesus’ words, actions, titles, and self-identifications form a coherent and cumulative case. From the explosive force of the “I AM” declarations echoing Exodus, to His assertion of oneness with the Father, authority to forgive sins, command over life and nature, and acceptance of worship, the evidence shows that Jesus operated within categories reserved for God alone in Jewish monotheism. The violent reactions of His contemporaries are not incidental; they reveal how His claims were understood in their original linguistic, cultural, and theological context.

Far from being later church exaggerations or poetic metaphors, the lesson argues that Jesus’ claims are embedded in Scripture, affirmed by early Christian witnesses, and rooted in Old Testament divine imagery. By engaging counter-arguments from Jewish, Muslim, and secular perspectives, the program frames the issue clearly: Jesus cannot be reduced to a moral teacher without doing violence to the historical record. He either knowingly claimed divine identity—or Christianity collapses at its foundation. The broadcast therefore leaves the listener with an unavoidable apologetic challenge: Jesus forces a decision, not admiration without allegiance, but truth that demands a verdict.