10/31/24
This was a good and candid question from someone who comes from a part of the world with very little cultural Christian context. It may be one of the best questions I've fielded this year. For my readers who have a strong background in Christianity, please take this as the honest question it was.
"We're reading in the Bible about John the Baptist. He's Jesus' cousin, right? And Jesus is a god. Is John the Baptist a god too? What about the parents?"
This is a really good line of questioning. Christians don't say Jesus is "a" god, but that he is "the God" who exists as one God but in the persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One God, three persons.
As we understand it, Jesus is the only one who can be what he is. He is entirely God by nature. Yet he took on mortality and was born very like any other baby. The mother, Mary, was a perfectly normal person. Although she is blessed by God with the ability to have a son though she is a virgin, and the son is God the Son, she is otherwise perfectly normal. Unlike those from pagan mythology who had sexual relations with a deity, Christians understand Mary to have become pregnant by believing God's promise to her. Some say she conceived Jesus through her ear, as she heard the promise.
What about John the Baptist? He would also be considered a miracle baby. His parents were old and had not had children. But God wanted them to be the parents of a prophet who would prepare people to believe Jesus. He was conceived the normal way, except that his parents were old and had never been able to bear children.
For further reading, spend some time in the New Testament Gospels according to Matthew, the first chapter, and according to Luke, the first two chapters. God raises up his messengers. But there's just one God, who expresses himself in three persons; a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit. All are one God and Jesus is God the Son, who has always existed but who took on humanity as the son of Mary.
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