\u201cWhen Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, \u201cWho do people say that the Son of Man is?\u201d \u201cWell,\u201d they replied, \u201csome say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.\u201d Then he asked them, \u201cBut who do you say I am?\u201d Simon Peter answered, \u201cYou are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.\u201d Jesus replied, \u201cYou are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means \u2018rock\u2019), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.\u201d\u201d
\u202d\u202dMatthew\u202c \u202d16\u202c:\u202d13\u202c-\u202d19\u202c NLT
\u201cOne of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, \u201cWe have seen the Lord!\u201d But he replied, \u201cI won\u2019t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.\u201d Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. \u201cPeace be with you,\u201d he said. Then he said to Thomas, \u201cPut your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don\u2019t be faithless any longer. Believe!\u201d \u201cMy Lord and my God!\u201d Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him, \u201cYou believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.\u201d\u201d
\u202d\u202dJohn\u202c \u202d20\u202c:\u202d24\u202c-\u202d29\u202c \u202dNLT\u202c\u202c
\u201cFor in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.\u201d
\u202d\u202dColossians\u202c \u202d2\u202c:\u202d9\u202c \u202dNLT\u202c\u202c
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I\u2019m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don\u2019t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic\u2014on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg\u2014or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. . . . Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. (CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, 55-56)
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