Imagine one of Jesus' disciples loved him very much but loved him as a friend/prophet/messiah/son-of-God, but not literally as God himself. Maybe similar to doubting Thomas prior to the resurrection. Imagine he loved Jesus so much that he would even give up his life to help him. Now this disciple keeps Jesus' commandments, prays to God and loves his neighbors as well as any other disciple does, what's his chance of seeing Christ in heaven? Does he even have a chance?
Imagine one of Jesus' disciples loved him very much but loved him as a friend/prophet/messiah/son-of-God...
Blake Lee
Charles Harris
Christ’s divinity is shown over and over again in the New Testament. For example, in John 5:18 we are told that Jesus’ opponents sought to kill him because he "called God his Father, making himself equal with God."
In John 8:58, when quizzed about how he has special knowledge of Abraham, Jesus replies, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am"—invoking and applying to himself the personal name of God—"I Am" (Ex. 3:14). His audience understood exactly what he was claiming about himself. "So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple" (John 8:59).
In John 20:28, Thomas falls at Jesus’ feet, exclaiming, "My Lord and my God!" (Greek: Ho Kurios mou kai ho Theos mou—literally, "The Lord of me and the God of me!")
In Philippians 2:6, Paul tells us that Christ Jesus "[w]ho, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be g.asped" (New International Version). So Jesus chose to be born in humble, human form though he could have simply remained in equal glory with the Father for he was "in very nature God."
Also significant are passages that apply the title "the First and the Last" to Jesus. This is one of the Old Testament titles of Yahweh: "Thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yahweh of armies: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; besides me there is no god’" (Is. 44:6; cf. 41:4, 48:12).
This title is directly applied to Jesus three times in the book of Revelation: "When I saw him [Christ], I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the First and the Last’" (Rev. 1:17). "And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the First and the Last, who died and came to life’" (Rev. 2:8). "Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense, to repay every one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the beginning and the end" (Rev. 22:12–13).
This last quote is especially significant since it applies to Jesus the parallel title "the Alpha and the Omega," which Revelation earlier applied to the Lord God: "‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8).
Oliver Turner
As the following quotes show, the early Church Fathers also recognized that Jesus Christ is God and were adamant in maintaining this precious truth.
Lucas Young
Jaxson Ward
Carson Collins
ok but none of that answers my question.
Jackson Turner
The denying of Christ's divinity is a heresy. As we can see, none of Christ's disciples or His early followers denied His divinity. The earliest forms of heresies that did deny Christ's divinity arose in the fourth century.
Camden Rodriguez
Finally Aristides gets some recognition.
Cooper Richardson
his disciples/apostles all denied HIM, multiple times, in various stages of his life. Not just his divinity but even allegiance and association with him they denied, including Peter.
My hypothetical disciple does not do this.
Oliver Young
Yeah, good points! It's definitely a hard question (hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me will come along), but Christianity teaches that the surest path to attaining salvation is being a… Christian. This means that you have to believe in the divinity for Christ, despite all the good things that the disciple in question might be doing.
God bless, mate.
Carson Thompson
Is that you John Lennon?
Michael Williams
For those that claim Jesus never claimed to be God, please answer why He was crucified by the jews.
Dylan Collins
that's a different thread topic.
Jayden Kelly
If he dies without repentance, no, he does not have a chance.
Jeremiah Stewart
Blake King
Are you seeing how implausible this is?
Even if it did happen, that guy would have seen first-hand all the things that Jesus did, and still not believed what he said. He's not saved, no. He was face to face with God and denied Him. That's the unforgivable sin, bruv.
Also, Peter denying Christ had nothing to do with his faith, he was just afraid that the people who were killing Jesus would come for him, next. And he repented of that, anyway. Your hypothetical disciple has no option of repenting, because he doesn't think he's done anything wrong.
Lucas Robinson
That's an interesting cuestion. And the answer is yes, because he is a divine person. You are loving God's personality. Later he revealed himself and that settled the point.
Jack Richardson
If he followed Jesus for even a short time, he would necessarily see the multiple proofs that He is really God. If he recognised these signs, he couldn't deny His divinity, because he would be acting against what he very well knows to be true and necessary to believe. If he without fault didn't recognise them, he would be in what is called invincible ignorance; the answer to what happens to such people (in Catholic perspective) is surprisingly hard to find, as different sources seem to hold different views, although we can be absolutely sure God actively wills such a person to be saved.
Gavin Carter
and yet
it wasn't just peter, it was all the disciples, and they were utterly confused at the resurrection and his reappearance, they saw him and didn't recognize him, Jesus had to explain to them what was going on, Thomas had to touch his wounds, etc.
Charles Ramirez
None unless he repents his heresy. He has rejected the grace of God hence why you see he is not justified as he has no faith for he rejects God.
Gavin Miller
He believes in God, like how Abraham did, or any israelite did prior to the resurrection.
Ian Foster
…..But that makes no sense. Jesus was pretty clear about who he was! This isn't like when you have a schizo friend who thinks he's God. Jesus did miracles etc as evidence.
So…..no. If you were a devout servant of God, and you saw all that you'd believe in him. If you didn't……you're not really serving God. IMO.
As always though - it's not up to us. God knows the heart etc. Maybe he'd be merciful about it (as in, maybe the guy was just a bit slow). Just work out your own salvation OP. Let God worry about the others.