Great. Our second question here is by Herbert Herbert Frank. Are there references where the early Christian fathers teach that Jesus was the son of the Old Testament Jehovah? In other words, did the early Christians believe Jesus was the son of Jehovah, or did they believe that Jesus was Jehovah come in the flesh? Or alternately, how did the early Christians relate Jesus and Jehovah? Okay, a timely question.
I don't know if my message that I recorded last week about Jehovah's Witnesses is what prompted the question or not.
But it would be one that very relevant for anyone leaving Jehovah's Witnesses, and also relevant for all Christians, and particularly anyone interacting with Jehovah's Witnesses, because so often people from other persuasions have this totally mixed up, and so they end up giving a terrible witness, and they end up, when someone leaves Jehovah's Witnesses, they run into this stone wall because they've left one false teaching about Jesus, and then they get switched over to an equally false one.
So, the answer to your question is the early Christians, you would find it all throughout their writings. They clearly viewed Jesus as the Son of the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Although the question probably needs a little bit more explanation or the answer because they don't use Jehovah. I don't know when that transliteration came in of the Old Testament, YHWH.
But because the early Christians were using the Septuagint for their Old Testament, the same as the apostles did, well, the Septuagint doesn't use either Yahweh or Jehovah or YHWH, however you want to say it. It's always God or Lord. So, they don't have any familiarity at all, just for the same reason why you don't see Jehovah or Yahweh in the New Testament, because it's not there and because it's not in the Septuagint.
And so, the early Christians just refer to Him as God or Lord or the Father, and Jesus is clearly the Son of God. Now, and I'll just give you a few quotes. I'm going to start with one from Scripture that to me makes it clear. I mean, to me, what did Jesus Himself say about this? John 8:41 and 42, Jesus said, then they said to him, " We were not born of fornication. We have one father, God. " Okay, so they're viewing God the Father as God. These are the Jewish leaders and I think other Jews there saying this.
Jesus said to them, " If God were your Father, you would love me. " Why? Because I am God? No, for I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have I come of myself, but He sent me. So Jesus always referred to Himself as the Son of God, not that I am the God you have been worshiping Him. Now, the confusion comes in from John 1:1 that we know that Jesus is also divine. His nature is that of God. And so it gets very confusing when you go back and forth.
If we're talking about His nature, it's proper to say Jesus is God, that that is His nature. But if we're talking about the God of the Old Testament, that is the Father. And usually in the New Testament, when it's talking about God, it's almost always talking about the Father, but there are several verses where it mentions God and is talking about Jesus. And then in verse 54 of John 8, Jesus says, it says, " Jesus answered, " If I honor myself, my honor is nothing.
" It is my Father who honors me of whom you say that He is your God. " So Jesus identified the God of the Old Testament. The one that Jews were worshiping, He said, " That's my Father. You say is your God. " He didn't say, " I'm the one that you say is God. " He said, " My father is the one. " So that's from Jesus Himself. And not surprisingly, we see that then mirrored in the early Christian writings. I'll read you just three here I've got. The first one is from Justin Martyr.
He said, " He who has but the smallest intelligence will not venture to assert that the maker and father of all things, having left all super celestial matters, was visible on a little portion of the earth. " Now there he's talking about the angel of the Lord mentioned in the Old Testament, " Who is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ? " He's saying, " That's not the Father who came down and was visible on the earth. " That was Jesus.
That's from, I believe, his dialogue with Trypho the Jew, if you want to read that sometime. Another one, this is from Irenaeus about the year 180. He said, " He whom the law proclaimed as God, " the law meaning the Mosaic Law, the same did Christ point out as the Father. So the one that Mosaic law refers to as God, Jesus pointed out as being the Father.
And then Tertullian writing about the year 200, " So far as a human being can form a definition of God, I present one that the conscience of all men will also acknowledge that God is the great supreme, existing in eternity, unbegotten, unmade, without beginning, without end. " Now, most of those terms would apply to Jesus as well, but one of them does not, and that is unbegotten. Jesus is begotten of the Father. And so he says, " When we think of God, we think of the unbegotten.
" Again, not denying the divinity of Christ, but that the ultimate God that the Bible normally talks about is the Father. So, this is just a cursory answer to your question. I would refer to anyone who would like to learn more just about what the early Christians taught about Jesus and the Father, their inner relationship. I have a message up on the Scroll Publishing YouTube channel on what the early Christians believed about the Trinity. I would really recommend you listen to that.
Also, on this channel, there's a no, I take that back. We haven't recorded one. Okay. Yeah, there's the one on the Trinity there on the Scroll SCROLL Publishing YouTube channel that'll give you a lot deeper answer. And the historic faith will have one or two probably as well. Yes, on the historic faith for certain.
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