How do you hope your book will affect the way today’s readers think about Jesus (and consequently, how do you hope it will affect readers’ daily lives)?
- We have observed with great concern the erosion of faith in Jesus Christ as God incarnate. Even within evangelicalism at a popular level, the doctrine of the incarnation is commonly neglected, often misunderstood, and in some instances rejected in favor of an unorthodox view of Christ. We hope that The Incarnate Christ and His Critics will strengthen believers in the biblical view of Christ and equip them to respond to the contemporary challenges to that faith. On a practical level, a thorough grasp of what Scripture reveals about Jesus will foster greater devotion and obedience to him, give believers more confidence in their witness to others about him, and make their reading of the Bible exciting and fruitful as Christ becomes more securely at the center of their faith.
What information most surprised you during your research and writing of this book?
- One thing that we found quite surprising is how widely recent scholarship, even from non-Christians, has conceded that the earliest Christians viewed Jesus as more than a man—as in some sense divine. The notion that Christians originally thought of Jesus as just a human Messiah and only generations later came to view him as divine has become passé. The debate now is not whether the earliest Christians thought Jesus was divine but rather what exactly that meant to them and how they came to see him in that way.
How is this book inspired by (and different from) your best-selling Putting Jesus in His Place? What new scholarship inspired The Incarnate Christ and His Critics to be written?
- Putting Jesus in His Place introduces readers to the various ways in which the New Testament presents Jesus as our Lord and our God. It debunks the canard that belief in the deity of Christ is a postbiblical doctrine based on a few biblical proof texts taken out of context. For the most part, that earlier book proceeded on the assumption of the inspiration of Scripture and simply expounded its teachings about Christ, while also showing that the deity of Christ is taught even in the earliest New Testament writings.
- We estimate that the amount of literature ever published of relevance to Christology has roughly doubled since our 2007 book. In response, The Incarnate Christ and His Critics develops a more rigorous, comprehensive defense of the doctrine of the incarnation in the context of two related disciplines. First, we integrate the field known as historical Jesus studies into our analysis of the issues. Contrary to prevailing theories in critical New Testament scholarship, we argue that the belief in Christ as God incarnate was grounded in Jesus’ own works and teachings and made evident to the earliest disciples through his resurrection. We defend as historical facts that Jesus performed miracles that revealed his deity, that he made implicitly divine claims, and that he died on the cross and rose from the dead. In addition, we refute attempts to trace the origins of divine Christology to early Christian appropriation of traditions about exalted figures in Second Temple Judaism, such as Melchizedek and Enoch. This makes The Incarnate Christ and His Critics not only a study in Christology but a full-fledged defense of the deity of the historical Jesus. Second, this new book engages in comparative religion as we systematically describe and respond to what six religious movements teach about Christ. Muslims think Jesus was just a great prophet. Progressive Christians are theologically ultraliberal church people who view Jesus as a Jewish mystic. Unitarians argue that Jesus was a virgin-born human exalted to divine status only after his resurrection. Mormons regard Jesus as one of many gods. Jehovah’s Witnesses preach that Jesus was the first creature, Michael the archangel. At the other extreme, Oneness Pentecostals teach that Jesus is God the Father manifest in the flesh. Against these theories, we defend the historic Christian view that Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man, fully divine and fully human, distinct from the Father but equal to him in divine nature and status.
What do you think today’s readers will find most surprising in this book?
- We suspect that many of today’s readers will be especially surprised by the rich depth of New Testament passages about Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount, commonly read (especially by liberals) as primarily ethical exhortations, in many ways reveals Jesus as the King of the kingdom of heaven. The accounts in the Gospels of Jesus’ miracles are suffused with allusions to the activity of the Lord God among the Israelites in the Old Testament. Paul’s epistles contain soaring descriptions of the greatness of Christ. The Book of Revelation, which many Christians view as an undecipherable text, truly is a revelation of Jesus Christ, showing him to be the Beginning and the End, the one who holds the future in his hands.
When you reflect on all you’ve written about the incarnate Christ, what one thing most leads you to worship?
- The deity of the incarnate Christ is an inexhaustible subject and the greatest subject about which we could ever hope to think, speak, or write. The eternal Son, through whom the world was created and on whom we are dependent for our every breath, could have stayed in heaven and left us to our sin and self-destruction. Instead, he permanently united himself to his creation, to our frail human race, and suffered scorn, abuse, and the most excruciating and humiliating death, all on our behalf. In doing so, he showed us just how much God loves us. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). We join in worshiping him with the countless human and angelic beings who shout, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain” (Rev. 5:12).
Robert M. Bowman Jr. (PhD, South African Theological Seminary) is President of the Institute for Religious Research and an esteemed lecturer in biblical studies and apologetics. He’s authored numerous books, including Putting Jesus in His Place and the Gold Medallion Award–winning book Faith Has Its Reasons.
Ed Komoszewski (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary) serves as Equipping Pastor at Reformation Church and Advisor to the Executive Director at the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. He’s coauthored multiple books, including Jesus, Skepticism, and the Problem of History and Putting Jesus in His Place.
