Jesus is the one and only God, the Father 1Co_8:6. He created us ( Joh 1:3) and came to earth in a body of flesh to save us Luke 1:35.
Many people have attempted to explain Jesus and understand him. The only way that we can get a true picture of Jesus is to rely on the Bible and the Bible alone. The conflict surrounding understanding Jesus, is his dual nature. By this we are referring to the fact that he was both God and man. This dual nature is something we cannot fully comprehend. All we know is that it happened, and we can see the evidence of it. The Scriptures state this: 1Ti_3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. The mystery is not how three persons can be one God. That is completely man-made. The mystery is how the unmeasureable, immutable, unfathomable God manifest himself in the flesh. When we read about Jesus, we find that he either acts as a man by sleeping, etc, and talking as a man (Joh 14:21), or he acts as God by miracles and forgiving sins (Joh_8:58), and talking as God (Joh_8:58 . Whenever you read about something JESUS did, ask yourself, is he acting/talking as God, or man? Asking this question should clear up any difficulties in understanding Jesus.
Who is Jesus according to the Scriptures:
Jesus is the Father: Isaiah 9:6, John 14:9, John 10:30
Jesus is the Son: Luke 1:35
Jesus is the Holy Ghost: Joh_14:26, Who makes intercession? heb 7:25 and 4:15 says jesus, John 14:16 says the Holy Ghost. There are many more examples, if you want more, just let me know. Interestingly, Jesus didn't just say the holy ghost would be in his name, he said it would be him. Joh 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. Joh 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. This is a wonderful example of the dual nature of Jesus. In verse seventeen he is speaking as a man. In verse eighteen, however, he suddenly switches and talks as God, henceforth the first person pronouns.
Begotten in the context to which you mentioned, is referring to Jesus' humanity. Whenever Son is mentioned, it is referring to the human manifestation of God. The Son is just the humanity of Jesus. Therefore, as all flesh must be born, the Son was begotten, or born. The Son did not pre-exist, and is not a separate individual, it is merely the body of flesh. Just as your body is not actually the real you, the real you is your soul, the Son is just the body. Inside the Son was God. Yes, you are his son, because Jesus is God, the self-existent one. He came in a body of Flesh. Yes, Jesus is the man who walked on Earth, but at the same time he was also the spirit that filled the world.
I sympathise with your difficulties when praying. In simple terms, when you pray to Jesus, you are praying to God.
The apostle Paul did not write that "Jesus is the one and only God, the Father" at 1 Corinthians 8:6, but that "to us there is but
one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him;
and one Lord Jesus Christ."(1 Cor 8:6,
King James Bible) Thus, Paul clearly distinguished "one God, the Father" (“One God.” Greek,
heis The·os´; Latin,
u´nus De´us; J18,22[Hebrew],
’Elo·him´ ’e·chadh´) and "one Lord Jesus Christ." At Malachi 2:10, the prophet Malachi told the Israelites: "Is it not
one father that all of us have? Is it not
one God that has created us? " Hence, God is the "one father that all of us have", whereas Jesus is not God, but the "one Lord".
That Jesus is not the Father is evident from Jesus words to the Jews: "
Not that any man has seen the Father, except he who is
from God; this one has
seen the Father."(John 6:46) The apostle John wrote about 65 years after Jesus death: "
No man has seen God at any time; the
only-begotten god who is in the bosom [position] with the Father is the one that has
explained him."(John 1:18) Also, "
at no time has anyone beheld God."(1 John 4:12) Hence, God has never been seen by humans, except Jesus Christ, who "explained him" to honest-hearted ones on the earth, and who corresponded to Adam in perfection before his deflection.
Paul wrote to Timothy, that "there is
one God, and
one mediator between God and men, a man,
Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all."(1 Tim 2:5, 6, “Corresponding ransom.” Greek,
an·ti´ly·tron ) Thence, Jesus serves as "mediator between God and men", and is not God. When on earth, Jesus did not have "dual nature", as if he "fully God and fully man". Rather, he "emptied himself and took a slave’s form and came to be in the
likeness of men."(Phil 2:7) Jesus was now "fully man"
only, having left his heavenly position with his Father and "humbled himself and became obedient as far as death, yes, death on a torture stake."(Phil 2:8)
At John 1:18, Jesus is called "the only-begotten god"("the only-begotten god",
Papyrus Bodmer 2 [P66],
Papyrus Bodmer 14, 15 [P75], both of about 200 C.E., oldest known Greek manuscripts of the book of John) and is thus godlike in characteristics, for he is Michael the Archangel that fought with Satan and his demons at Revelation 12:7-9, casting them out of the heavenly realm and down to the earth.
And of the word "begotten", the dictionary says: "past participle of beget" or to "1. father: to be the father of a child (archaic), 2. cause: to be the cause of something."(
Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2005) Hence, Jesus was "begotten " or fathered, having a beginning as with all children. Jesus himself says that he is "the
beginning of the creation by God."(Rev 3:14) Jesus is unique, for he is the "only-begotten Son of God" or the only son directly created by God himself.
"Only-begotten" is derived from the Greek word
mo·no·ge·nes´ and is defined by lexicographers as “single of its kind, only,” or “the only member of a kin or kind.” (Thayer’s
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 1889, p. 417; Liddell and Scott’s
Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford, 1968, p. 1144) The term is used in describing the relation of both sons and daughters to their parents. The
King James Bible does not accurately bring this out, for at Luke 7:12, it says of the son of the widow of Nain, that "there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." The account does not say "only son of his mother", but that "there was a dead man being carried out, the only-begotten son of his mother."(
New World Translation)
The Greek word for "only" is
monon, whereas the Greek word for "only-begotten" is
mo·no·ge·nes´, which is used at Luke 7:12 instead of
monon. At John 3:16, Jesus used the Greek word
mo·no·ge·nes´, and is thus "the only member of a kin or kind." He is a "single of its kind" in his being created directly by God. Hence, through Jesus "all other things were created in the heavens and upon the earth."(Col 1:16) Furthermore, "he is before all [other] things and by means of him all [other] things were made to exist."(Col 1:17)
To show unscrupulousness of individuals, in order to prop up the trinity doctrine, the
King James Bible reads of Acts 7:59: "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon
God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." However,
Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament makes this honest admission: “The word
God is
not in the original, and should not have been in the translation. It is in
none of the ancient [manuscripts] or versions.” How did the word “God” come to be inserted into that verse? Scholar Abiel Abbot Livermore called this “an instance of the
sectarian biases of the translators.” Most modern translations, therefore, eliminate this spurious reference to God.
Of 1 Timothy 3:16, it is readily known among scholars that the word "God" is not there, but the Greek word
hos (
OC in Greek letterng) was altered in the Alexandrian manuscrpt (fifth century C.E.) by someone into a contraction for "God" (
ΘC ), by a single dash through the word. One of the first persons to discover tampering with 1 Timothy 3:16 was John James Wetstein (1693-1754). Benjamin Wilson, in the
Emphatic Diaglott of 1864, wrote that "nearly all the ancient MSS.(manuscripts), and all the versions have "He who," instead of "God," in this passage."
Until recent years this scripture, also, was much quoted in support of the Trinity teaching, but most modern versions have now substituted “he” for “God”; the Catholic
Jerusalem Bible even adds a footnote: “He, i.e. Christ." The
New King James Bible (1994) has the word "God" within 1 Timothy 3:16, but says in it's centernotes: "NU
who", with the letters NU meaning "the twenty-sixth edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament (N) and the United Bible Societies third edition (U)." Thus, 1 Timothy 3:16 accurately reads as "he who was manifested in the flesh", speaking of Jesus Christ and not God.
Most never do any kind of critical or analytical research regarding the Bible, in order to find for themselves what is true and accurate. Instead, most just accept without question what has been passed down through the centuries on various doctrines by the churches of Christendom, that which is "orthodox". Jesus said to "keep on asking, and it will be given you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you."(Matt 7:7)