The First and the Last

After some contemplation of last Sundays Mass Readings I felt the Holy Spirit guiding me to talk about the Divinity of Jesus.  This feeling came to me when I read the Scripture readings and fell on the passage of John describing the voice that said to him: “Behold, I am coming soon. I bring with me recompense I will give to each according to his deeds.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning ant the end.”

One sentence later we find out that Jesus is the one speaking here but I’ve already heard from those who do not believe Jesus to be God that the one speaking was God the Father and that Jesus began speaking later.  Context is pretty plain that it is indeed Jesus speaking about being the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last but since this verse isn’t convincing for some, I thought I’d bring out some other verses that are a little clearer on this.

First, we know with certainty that the Lord God is the first and the last because the Old Testament explains this explicitly.  Isaiah 44, verse 6 tells us: “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”

God also describes Himself as the Alpha and Omega in the first chapter of Revelation when He says: “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)  So, it’s established that God is the Alpha and the Omega.  And earlier in Isaiah we see that God describes Himself as the first and the last.  The New Testament being written in Greek, the idea of ‘the first and the last’ is expressed using the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and omega.

So, does Jesus call himself the first and the last to describe himself as God?  In fact, He does.  In the Book of Revelation the Apostle John writes: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

Do you see it?  God is the First and the Last and here the one calling Himself the ‘First and the Last’ also says in the same breath that he once was dead but now is alive for ever and ever.  The only one that can claim this title is God, and yet Jesus is also the only one who can say that he once was dead but is alive once again.  Therefore since Jesus describes Himself by a title that only God can have tells us that Jesus, right here in Scripture, declares Himself to be God.

God Bless
Nathan

Movie Review - Son of God

SPOILER ALERT - (I have to say that, even though most of us who would be reading this forum already knows how the story will end!)

My wife and I went to see Son of God last night.  All in all, it was well done.  There were a few parts where some artistic license was taken (like the Blessed Mother assisting Jesus to pick His Cross back up after one of His falls). Without being overly critical, the wording was relatively true to the text.  I would have liked the part where Jesus prophesied Peter's denial, that He would have said "before the cock crows" and then had an actual cock crow...  as it was, Jesus said "before morning" and the actual denial scene (where it is portrayed that Peter denies Him three times in one conversation, not three separate times) is in bright daylight - morning had already happened...  no real biggie, but a minor directorial faux pax.

Another thing which distracted me throughout the show was the actress who played the Blessed Virgin...  I didn't know they had botox or collagen injections back in that day!  I'm sorry, but that was truly a distraction, for me at least.

Now, all that being said, from what I've heard, if you watched The Bible series which was on television last year - you pretty much saw a lot of this movie already.  Personally, though I like what I saw of The Bible series, but for whatever reason, I did not see more than the first couple episodes - so I did not see those which included Jesus' story.  When they showed Adam, Noah, Moses, etc., those scenes were familiar to me.  While much of it was taken from the earlier series, not all of it was - there are several new scenes in the movie you did not see earlier.

Recommendation:  Go see it!  This type of production deserves our support.  The more successful Christian productions are, the more we'll see!

Watch the interview with Roma Downy and Mark Burnett on The World Over with Raymond Arroyo: