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Catholics and many other sects of Christianity believe Jesus is the son of God, coequal to God, God became man, the Messiah, and a prophet all in one. Besides being blasphemous this is confusing.
Wouldn’t it make more sense that Jesus was only the awaited messiah, a prophet, a servant of God who was a man?
There are many verses in the New Testament to prove this:
”And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.’” Matthew 21:11 RSV
“And he said to them, ‘What things?’ And they said to him, ‘Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,’” Luke 24:19 RSV
“On hearing his words, some of the people said, ‘Surely this man is the Prophet.’” John 7:40 NIV
"This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, 'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.'” John 3:2 RSV
Jesus said “but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God;” John 8:40 RSV
The above verse is important to understand, Jesus is referring to himself as only a man, and stating God is separate from him.
“Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:” Acts 2:22 NIV
The below two verses state God is separate from his servant Jesus:
“The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus” Acts 3:13 RSV
“When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” Acts 3:26 NIV
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Luke 2:52 KJV
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” 1 Timothy 2:5 RSV
Jesus healed the paralysed man, “When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.” Matthew 9:8 NIV
Renowned Roman Catholic bible scholar Raymond E. Brown states: “Jesus is never called God in the Synoptic Gospels, and a passage like Mark 10:18 would seem to preclude the possibility that Jesus used the title of himself. Even the fourth Gospel never portrays Jesus as saying specifically that he is God.
The sermons which Acts attributes to the beginning of the Christian mission do not speak of Jesus as God. Thus, there is no reasons to think that Jesus was called God in the earliest layers of the New Testament tradition.” 2
Renowned Roman Catholic bible scholar Joseph Pohle states : “Some modern writers hold that even the Didache, or 'Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,' the oldest literary monument of Christian antiquity outside of the New Testament canon, must be the work of an Ebionitic or Monarchianistic writer, because it contains no formal profession of faith in the Divinity of Jesus Christ and the Atonement.” 3
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