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"You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; l am not
of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do
not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in
your sins" (John 8:23-24)

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"Then they asked him, 'What must we do to do the work of God?' Jesus
answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the on whom he has
sent." (John 6:28-29)

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Most of us go about our daily lives oblivious to the fact that we must
experience death. Two thousand years ago, a man was born who said he
knew what lay beyond the grave. His name was Jesus Christ, and he
claimed that God was his Father.

On five different occasions, Jesus predicted that he would die but
that his Father would bodily resurrect him three days afterward. His
recorded appearances throughout the 40 day period after his
resurrection, including 6 independent testimonies with 3 eye witness
accounts, and 10 separate occasions involving different people at
distinct times and places attest to the accuracy of his predictions.

The preaching of His Gospel throughout all civilizations on earth, the
presence of His moral teachings within the legal fabric of all nations
on earth, the fulfilled prophesies surrounding His birth, life and
death, the global focus on the mid-East and Jerusalem, the historical
affirmation of His bodily resurrection, the world-wide calendar change
(BC means "Before Christ") -- these are but a smattering of numerous
evidences that attest to the accuracy of Who Jesus claimed to be.

Most people do not understand the degree of equality Jesus claimed
with God. He said that everything God had also belonged to him, and
that He came down from heaven, sent by God, to shine as a bright light
in a dark world. He said he was sent to save the world, and that
unless people believed this, they would die in their sins. He claimed
that he controlled powerful angels, and that He had the power to talk
with and raise the dead, and to give or deny eternal life to people.
He also stated that the words He spoke were eternal, and that they
would be dispersed throughout the entire world prior to its end.

Jesus did works which coincided with His claims. Apart from his
resurrection, testimonies that He changed water into wine, calmed a
fierce storm, walked upon the water, raised the dead, fed thousands
with 2 fish and 5 loaves, and healed numerous dumb, lame and blind
people were given by men who all willingly died for what they said
they saw Jesus do. Even his enemies did not deny the miracles.

Jesus' character and flawless self image also coincided with His
claims. Although every other man has had his faults, even the judge
who condemned Jesus to death publicly declared: "I find no fault in
this man". Proclaiming himself to be sinless, Jesus told others to ask
for forgiveness. He also claimed power to forgive them their sins.

Jesus displayed innocence with strength, and humility with dignity. He
was both prudent and courageous, and His manner was firm yet gentle.
He was also benevolent and tender, but never weak or sentimental. He
was unworldly, but not indifferent. He hated sin, but loved sinners,
and the central concern of his devotion to God was the welfare of man.
His one brief public sermon has become the Magna Charta for countless
millions. Even the skeptics concede that if people would just do what
He taught, poverty and injustice and fear would be banished from the
earth, and war would be no more.

Today we hold Christ up as an outstanding moral teacher, but live our
lives mindless to what He taught. In our confusion, we accord him
greatness, but deny him the identity He claimed. Historical records
reveal Jesus as the Spirit-conceived incarnation of God into virgin-
born flesh, thereby vesting Christ with undiminished Deity and
unblemished humanity fused by God without mixture into one perfect
Being. To this end, the Words and the Deeds of Jesus *are* the Words
and the Deeds of God.

Most of us own a Bible and believe we understand its content. But few
of us ever open it because in our busy schedule, it is easier to let
someone else tell us what it says. In the Bible are the recorded
claims of Jesus Christ. A sample of these claims are reproduced below.
They leave us with only two alternatives concerning his Person.

Either Jesus was an egotistical lunatic who, before committing suicide,
perpetrated the most colossal deception ever known to mankind, or
Jesus was exactly who He said He was, the Divine Son of God-- one of
three Persons consubstantial in One Being, and existing before the
foundation of the world as a heavenly provision for the wrongdoings of
all mankind.

If you doubt these assertions, then read for yourself the small sample
of his recorded claims below.

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1. * JESUS CLAIMED HE CAME FROM HEAVEN TO SAVE THE WORLD *

"I am the living bread that came down from Heaven" < John 6:51 >

"I did not come to judge the world, but to save it" < John 12:47 >

"The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have
believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered
the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."
< John 16:27-28 >

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2. * JESUS CLAIMED HE WAS SENT BY GOD *

"The very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I
am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. And the Father who
sent me has Himself testified concerning me." < John 5:36-37 >

"I stand with the Father who sent me. In your own Law it is written
that the testimony of two men is valid. I am one who testifies for
myself; my other witness is the one who sent me- the Father."
< John 8:16-18 >

"Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love me, for
I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but He
sent me." < John 8:42 >

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3. * JESUS CLAIMED THAT GOD WAS HIS FATHER *

"Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's
Son'? Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. But if I
do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the evidence of
the miracles, that you may learn and understand that the Father is
in me, and I in the Father." < John 10:36-38 >

"They all asked, 'Are you then the Son of God?' He replied, 'You are
right in saying I am.' Then they said, 'Why do we need any more
testimony? We have heard it from his own lips?" < Luke 22:70-71 >

"My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.
Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I
would be a liar like you. but I do know him and keep his word. Your
father Abraham rejoiced at the thought or seeing my day; he saw it
and was glad." They said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old,
and you have seen Abraham!" "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered,
"before Abraham was born, I Am!" < John 8:54-58 >

"Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed, are you, Simon
son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my
Father in heaven." < Matthew 16:15-17 >

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4. * JESUS CLAIMED THAT HE AND GOD WERE EQUAL *

"Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." < John 14:9 >

"All that belongs to the Father is mine." < John 16:15 >

"When a man looks at me, he sees the one who sent me." < John 12:45 >

"I and the Father are one." < John 10:30 >

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5. * JESUS CLAIMED HE WAS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD *

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in
darkness, but will have the light of life." < John 8:12 >

"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes
in me should stay in darkness." < John 12:46 >

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6. * JESUS CLAIMED HIS WORDS WERE ETERNAL *

"As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do
not judge him. For 1 did not come to judge the world but to save
it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept
my words: that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last
day. For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent
me commanded me what say and how to say it. I know that his command
leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father
has told me to say." < John 12:47-50 >

"Jesus replied, 'If any one loves me, he will obey my teaching. My
Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home
with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These
words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent
me." < John 14:23-24 >

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world
as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
< Matthew 24:14 >

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never
pass away." < Luke 21:33 >

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7. * JESUS CLAIMED POWER TO TALK WITH AND RAISE THE DEAD *

"I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the
dead will hear the voice of the Son of God... all who are in their
graves will hear his voice and come out-- those who have done good
will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be
condemned." < John 5:25-29 >

"My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes
in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day." < John 6:40 >

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and
I will raise him up at the last day." < John 6:44 >

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8. * JESUS CLAIMED HE COULD DO ANYTHING *

"I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring
glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I
will do it." < John l4:l3-l4 >

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you
wish, and it will be given you." < John 15:7 >

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9. * JESUS CLAIMED POWER TO GIVE ETERNAL LIFE *

"I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the
bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they
died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man
may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
If a man eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." < John 6:47-51 >

"Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will
raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood
is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in
me, and I in him. Just at the living Father sent me and I live because
of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Our forefathers ate
manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."
< John 6:54-50 >

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent
me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over
from death to life." < John 5:24 >

"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you
possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me,
yet you refuse to come to me to have life." < John 5:39-40 >

"I tell you the truth, if a man keeps my word, he will never see death."
< John 8:51 >

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give
them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them
out of my hand." < John 10:27-28 >

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live,
even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never
die." < John 11:25-26 >

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10. * JESUS CLAIMED POWER TO DENY ETERNAL LIFE *

"For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so
the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the
Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that
all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father." < John 5:21-23 >

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of
heaven. but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
< Matthew 7:21 >

"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before
my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men. I will disown
him before my Father in heaven." < Matthew 10:32-33 >

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11. * JESUS CLAIMED HE WOULD RETURN WITH POWERFUL ANGELS *

"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and
all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of
Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.
And He will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will
gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens
to the other." < Matthew 24:30-31 >

"If anyone is ashamed of me and my words. the Son of Man
will be ashamed of him and when he comes in his glory and in
the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." < Luke 9:26 >

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory. and all the angels with
him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations
will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one
from the other as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then
the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed
by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you
since the creation of the world." < Matthew 25:31-34 >

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12. * JESUS CLAIMED HE WAS THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN *

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way-- and the truth and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through me." < John 14:6 >

"If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown
away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire
and burned." < John 15:6 >

"I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink his blood, you have no life in you." < John 6:53 >

"The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the
world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds
are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
'As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire. so it will be at
the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they
will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do
evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be
weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the
sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear."
< Matthew 13:37-43 >