Jesus Not the Almighty in Rev. 1:8

A person told me that Rev. 1:8 refers to Jesus as the Almighty.
(Trinity and Oneness Pentecostals come to the same conclusion…that Jesus is God.)

My response?
In Rev. 1:8, it does not matter what color the words are in, it does not refer to Jesus. Jesus is NEVER referred to as the “Almighty.” No one will find a single place in the entire NT that describes Jesus as the Almighty.
Please read the context and you will see that John bore witness to distinct separate beings; God Almighty AND Jesus the man.
For example, in Rev. 1:4-6 it says,

John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him (GOD THE FATHER) who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne; AND from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him (Jesus) who loves us, and released us from our sins by his blood, and he (Jesus) has made us to be a kingdom, priests TO HIS GOD AND FATHER; to him (GOD THE FATHER) be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

PLEASE carefully read the grammatical structure of the paragraph. It reads, “…Him who is and who was and who is to come AND from Jesus Christ.”
Jesus is not God Almighty and God Almighty is not the firstborn from the dead! God cannot die! Nor does God have blood!

In Revelation 1:5 we see that Jesus is not God because he made a kingdom of priests to “HIS GOD.” How can Jesus be God since the passage says, “he made us to be a kingdom, priests to HIS GOD AND FATHER?”

This is not to mention that in Rev. 3:12 Jesus says,
“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of MY GOD, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of MY GOD, and the name of the city of MY GOD, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from MY GOD, and my new name.”

Does it make sense to say “MY GOD” if Jesus is God??

When he was resurrected from the dead, he told the woman,
“Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father: but go unto my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto MY FATHER and YOUR FATHER, and MY GOD and YOUR GOD.” ~Jn. 20:17

And since it’s a matter of eternal life, who does Jesus say is the ONLY TRUE GOD in John 17:3?

Source: Jesus Not the Almighty in Rev. 1:8

Jesus Does Not Make Sense if He Claimed to be God Himself.

If Jesus is God as Trinitarians and Oneness Pentecostals claim, what Jesus says would not make sense. For instance, in Matt. 5:8 Jesus says,
“Blessed are the pure in heart FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD.”
If Jesus is God, then he is intentionally being deceptive if he claims to be God as Trinitarians and Oneness Pentecostals falsely claim he did.
Some of the questions posed below to Trinitarians and Oneness Pentecostal believers will never get a straight answer. If an answer is given, notice that they must resort to unbiblical reasoning.
How can Jesus claim to be God and have a God at the same time?

When he was resurrected from the dead he told the woman in John 20:17,
“I ascend to my Father and your Father, and MY GOD and YOUR GOD.”

And in Rev. 3:12 he says,
“Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of MY GOD. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of MY GOD and the name of the city of MY GOD, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from MY GOD; and I will also write on him my new name.”

And in Revelation 3:21
“To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with MY FATHER on HIS THRONE.

In Rev. 1:6 Jesus says,
“[Jesus] has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve HIS GOD AND FATHER – to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.”

Notice this is AFTER he was resurrected from the dead.

Again, How can Jesus claim to be God and have a God at the same time?
What about prayer? Does Jesus always pray to himself? (Ex. John 17:3) For that matter, if Jesus is God, why the need for him to pray at all?
If Jesus is God, why tell the disciples,
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me?”
Why not simply say, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in me for I am God.”

If you say Jesus is God who created the heavens and the earth and mankind, why does Jesus say it was God who did those things?
(Mark 10:6; see Gen. 1)
Why couldn’t Jesus simply say, “I created…?

Bottom line, If Jesus is God and claims to be God as you say, why does he use a lot of double-talk to confuse the listeners?
If you say Jesus is 100% human and 100% God because he has a “dual nature,” where did you get that out of Scripture? If a person is 100% human, how can he be 100% of something else?

I often hear, and have used it myself, that nothing is too hard for God and that he COULD become a man if he so chooses. The question is not COULD God become a man, the question is, where in Scripture does it clearly state that he DID become a man? There is not one.
Where does it clearly state that Jesus was comprised of two natures? It doesn’t.

Hebrews 2:17 says,
“in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.”

If Jesus was made like unto his brethren, do we have a dual nature? Are we God-man? Since we don’t have a dual nature, Heb. 2:17 cannot be true concerning Jesus if you say he does.
Dual nature is not taught in Scripture. God did not send Himself to die for us. God cannot die!

Nowhere in scripture did Jesus or the apostles teach a dual nature of Christ or that Christ was God. One would have to read that into scriptures and rely on philosophy. Scriptures are clear that Jesus is the Son of God and that God is his Father and our Father and our God. God the Father is the ONLY TRUE GOD (John 20:17, John 17:3, etc.)

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” Col. 2:8

Source: Jesus Does Not Make Sense if He Claimed to be God Himself.

Worshipping Someone Does Not Make Them God

The majority of Christendom think that since Jesus was worshipped, this means he is God. They will also often refer to passage where Jesus says,
“You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only” (Matt. 4: 10).
Note that Jesus did not say, “I am the LORD your God, worship me only.”
In the Hebrew culture worship is not reserved exclusively for God. Worship was offered to God and other people.
For example:

• Lot “worshipped” the two strangers as they entered Sodom
  (Gen. 19: 1).
• Abraham “worshipped” the Gentile leaders of the land where he lived (Gen. 23: 7).
• Jacob “worshipped” his older brother Esau (Gen. 33: 3).
• Joseph’s brothers “worshipped” him (Gen. 43: 26).
• Ruth “worshipped” Boaz (Ruth 2: 10).
• David “worshipped” Jonathan (1 Sam. 20: 41).
• David “worshipped” King Saul (1 Sam. 24: 8).
• Mephibosheth fell on his face and “worshipped” David (2 Sam. 9: 6).
• Abigail “worshipped” David the outlaw (1 Sam. 25: 23, 41).
• The whole congregation “worshipped” the king (1 Chron. 9: 20).
• In Rev. 3:9, the saints will be worshipped,
  Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of them that say they are Jews, and they are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.”

People who were worshipped were God’s representatives. This is called “Jewish Agency.” When a superior commissions an agent to act on his behalf, the agent is regarded at the person himself. We can take a few examples from scripture.

For instance:
Jacob wrestled with “a man” all night until dawn and said he had “seen God face to face” (Gen. 32:24-30). When we read the book of Hosea 12:3-4 it states, “As a man he [Jacob] struggled with God; he struggled with the angel and overcame him.”

When Israel started their journey through the wilderness we read in Exodus 13:21,
The LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to lead them on their way during the day and in a pillar of fire to give them light at night, so that they could travel day or night.”
Then in Exodus 14:19 we read,
“And the angel of God who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.”

Here we have the LORD Himself who went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud and there other passage says it was the angel of God. The angel of God is the angelic representative of Yahweh as if the angel is Yahweh Himself.

Now it might be said that this speaks of Jesus the Messiah, but if they want to call and say Jesus is an “angel,” they will run into many problems trying to read that into the text.

Notice when Moses gathers the people together to tell them of the great signs and wonders the LORD did for them, he says,
You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders (Deut. 29: 2-3).

Now in verse 6 he says,
You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am the LORD your God.

No one would have mistaken that Moses was claiming to be the LORD their God. Moses, as God’s agent, speaks as though he is the LORD himself.

Concerning the concept or “law” of Jewish agency, The Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion states:
Agent (Heb. Shaliah): The main point of the Jewish law of agency is expressed in the dictum, “a person’s agent is regarded as the person himself” (Ned. 72B; Kidd, 41b). Therefore any act committed by a duly appointed agent is regarded as having been committed by the principal, who therefore bears full responsibility for it with consequent complete absence of liability on the part of the agent.
(R.J.Z. Werblowsky, G. Wigoder, New York: Adama Books, 1986, p. 15.)

We can compare this concept when a person is given “Power of Attorney” for someone. They have full rights to speak on behalf of that person and take care of all his affairs in all matters as if he were the person himself.
In the New Testament Jesus is the ultimate agent of God,
“power of attorney” so to speak. He is the messiah sent from God (“sent,” not meaning Jesus literally came down from heaven as though he preexisted his birth) as all other agents, whether men or angels, were sent.
So when it comes to worshipping Jesus, the Jewish people did not recognize him to be God himself, but as the prophet of God, sent from God. When Jesus did mighty works, they glorified God through him (Matt. 9: 8; 11: 27; 28: 18; Luke 7: 16; 9: 11; 10: 22.).

Summary
The Hebrew and Greek word for “worship” apply to God and also apply to superior human agents of the only true God. Worshipping a superior human agent did not make them the only true God.

Jesus is the ultimate spokesman for God and said to be the “image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15), “and the express image of his person” (Heb. 1:3), which means he perfectly reflected God’s mind and character while he walked on this earth, but this does not make him the only true God.

Both are worthy of worship, that is, Jesus as the lord Messiah, and the ULTIMATE praise and worship to the ONLY TRUE GOD AND FATHER of our lord Jesus Christ.
(John 17:3; Eph. 1:3; 1 Peter 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:3)

Source: Worshipping Someone Does Not Make Them God