Once we see Yeshua Messiah as fully God, equal in divinity with the Father (Php 2:6) but lower in rank and submitted to Him (1Co 11:3), we begin to see it everywhere, as in the last of 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.”
We compare this with: “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.” (Ps 118:8-9), “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” (Ps 146:3), and “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.” (Jer 17:5-7)
We can’t have it both ways: either Christ is fully God and worthy of our implicit trust, or He’s a mere man and shouldn’t be ultimately trusted. If God says that all those who put their ultimate trust in Christ are blessed, Jesus Christ must be the omnipotent, infinite, eternal God.
Kiss the Son, acknowledge His majesty, giving Him honor, reverence and glory. (Re 5:13)
Jehovah is angry when we don’t glorify Him as God. (Ro 1:18, 20) God’s Son is just like His Father; we can either trust, serve and respect Him as Almighty God or perish from the way; He’s a consuming fire. (He 12:29)
In opposing the deity of Yeshua, some might argue that God can’t become a man, be fully God Himself as that man, be submitted to Himself, temporarily limit Himself in that man in both knowledge and wisdom, and die physically.
Did God Himself say He can’t do this? Can’t God do whatever He wants, so long as it does not directly contradict His nature? Presuming we know what God can’t do is unwise unless God Himself has told us, or it is clearly/directly implied from what He has revealed about Himself. We may not understand how He can do this, but this lack of understanding isn’t an argument.
In this context, “death” is merely the separation of the soul and spirit from the body, not an extinction of the spiritual facilities or eternal separation from God and spiritual life. God becoming extinct would contradict His nature, but this isn’t required in the concept of the physical death that Yeshua died. (“And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Lk 23:43)
In opposing the deity of Yeshua, some might argue that Yeshua being God requires that there be more than one God, yet God is one.
Didn’t YHWH say, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness?” (Ge 1:26) One image of a single Being who is an us, a community?
God can be distinctly one and still a plurality, “Elohim” (gods), not a plurality of distinct and separate gods but a trinity within a single Being, like we are (body, soul, spirit) expressing/revealing Himself in different ways, but always Himself. Presuming God can’t do this is to underestimate Him.
In opposing the deity of Yeshua, some might argue that proof of Yeshua’s deity depends entirely on a misunderstanding of the New Testament; that it isn’t supported in the Tanach.
This is circular reasoning, logical fallacy, assuming what you want to prove. We see the deity of Yeshua throughout the Word, as in Ge 1:26, Ps 2, etc. which must be addressed.
In opposing the deity of Yeshua, some might argue that those who initially promoted the deity of Yeshua were heretics and anti-semites.
All heretics believe some things that are true. This is classic guilt by association, logical fallacy, false reasoning.
In opposing the deity of Yeshua, some might argue that scripture says, “Son of God,” but it never says, “God the Son.”
Why presume God has to use these particular words if Yeshua is divine? This is an argument from silence, a logical fallacy, faulty reasoning.
The Jews evidently believed that Yeshua’s use of the term “Son of God” in reference to Himself was blasphemous. “The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” (Jn 10:33)
In His defense, Yeshua does not deny the implication that He is God: “Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.” (Jn 10:36-38)