Restoring the Biblical Christ: Is Jesus God?

The first chapter of Restoring the Biblical Christ documents the history surrounding the Nicene Crisis in order to show that the modern day tradition was not always the belief held by early Christians. In 325 AD, Constantine exhorted the Bishops assembled at Nicea to sign a creed declaring that God and Jesus are homoousios (a Greek term that means same-essence). What few know, however, is that the exact same term Constantine had placed in the Nicene Creed was condemned fifty years prior at the Christian Synods of Antioch. The first chapter of Restoring the Biblical Christ documents the history, showing the rise of Nicene doctrine, the rejection of it by early Christians, and ultimately its enforcement by a subsequent Roman Emperor, Theodosius.

Chapters 2-16 begin a thorough, fresh examination of what the Bible actually does say about Jesus. Is he God? What does the Bible say? Jesus is called "the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4, Colossians 1:15). If I show you an image of someone, a photograph of Einstein for example, and ask you, "Who is this?" You would say, "That is Einstein." Yet, there are not two of him. The image of Einstein doesn't combine with the true and only Einstein to form one man made up of multiple persons who are each Einstein. Rather, there is one Einstein, and he is expressed in his image. Jesus said that when men saw him, they saw the Father (John 14:9). That is because he is "the image of God" and "the Word (which means expression) of God." The fact that the image is sometimes called by the name of the one who is revealed through the image (i.e., "That is Einstein") carries through much of the Bible and clarifies many texts. For instance, Jesus "turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me Satan." (Matthew 16:23) Now, Peter wasn't literally Satan, but rather he was called such because Satan was using him at that moment.

Accurately defining the correlation of God and Jesus has been described in our modern day as "beyond the reason of man" and "unable to be explained." Such conclusions are not necessary, however, and when you finish this book you will see that the Biblical teaching concerning God and Jesus is actually very logical.

One reviewer wrote:

"What this book is not is mimetic and unthinking: it is just well-researched, well-cited, eloquently argued, and uncompromisingly Biblical in its orientation. Kerrigan goes where few tread, not for the sake of argument, but for the sake of truth. What you see time and time again is that the Biblical godhead teaching is plainer than what the theologians have been making it."