CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

If you are interested in doing apologetics, you will need to become familiar with the evidence of Christ, the Messiah, in the Hebrew Scriptures. This is because every cult and religion denies that Jesus is God and will challenge you to prove it. The rabbis claim that Jesus is merely a New Testament fabrication, and Muslims claim that the NT passages that claim He is God have been either corrupted or misinterpreted. I therefore want to offer these verses as a handy reference for you.

There are many portraits of Jesus and also Christophanies (often where He is identified as the “Angel of the Lord) which I will not mention here because they are too involved to use in debate. However, I find this OT evidence of the deity of Christ even more compelling than what I offer here. The first several categories pertain to the Trinity in the OT.

PLURAL PRONOUNS:

• Genesis 1:26-27 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

• Genesis 3:22  And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

• Genesis 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

• Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

DISTINCTION OF PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD (also called “Plurality of Persons):

• Genesis 19:24 Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.  

Wherever you find “LORD” written in Caps, it is a translation of the Hebrew “Yahweh,” which always refers to God.

• Psalm 110:1 The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

As Jesus had pointed out (Matthew 22:42-45), in this Psalm King David confessed that He had two Masters. How could that be if he was king, unless “my Lord” referred to the Messiah?

• Isaiah 44:6 Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

• Isaiah 48:16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.

Here we see an illustration of the three Persons of the Trinity. However, it seems that God had carefully guarded this truth, perhaps because Israel might confuse Trinity with the polytheistic beliefs of their neighbors. Therefore, He added:

·       Isaiah 48:12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

• Isaiah 49:7 Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.

• Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

·       Exodus 33:2 And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

·       Exodus 33:14 And he said, My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

I capitalized the “P” in “My Presence,” because many other verses make it clear that God is still with Israel even though God was not present.

• Hosea 1:7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.

• Zech. 2:10-11 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee.

• Zech. 12:10  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

DEITY OF THE SON (the Messiah):

• Psalm 2:7 I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Psalm 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

• Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. [meaning “God with us.” The Hebrew for “Immanuel” is found only two other times in Scripture, both in the next chapter (Isaiah 8:8, 10). To get a better idea of who this Child is, you must consult these two verses.]

• Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

• Jeremiah 23:5-6 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

• Jeremiah 33:15-16 In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.

• Micah 5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

• Malachi 3:1-3 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' sope: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

• Proverbs 30:4 Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?

THE DIVINE SPIRIT: While both Muslims and Jews believe in the existence of the Spirit, however, they either regard Him as a created being or an impersonal extension of God.

• Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

• Zech. 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

These verses indicate that the Spirit is a Being distinct from God the Father and having godlike abilities:

• Ezekiel 2:2-3 Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me. And He said to me: "Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day.

• Ezekiel 11:5 Then the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said to me, "Speak! 'Thus says the Lord: "Thus you have said, O house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind.”

These verses provide weighty OT evidence that the Messiah is God and a member of the Trinity. Of course, the NT teaches these truths far more explicitly. Nevertheless, the OT evidence remains integral to the Christian defense. This evidence also demonstrates that the doctrines of the Deity of Messiah and the Trinity weren’t NT inventions or had been borrowed from other religions.