THERE ARE TWO JESUSES IN THE BIBLE (PART II)

“The Incarnate Christ Couldn’t Get Anyone Born Again”

By Akin Ojumu

This commentary is an exegetical review of one the several theologically outrageous remarks made by Abel Damina during a sermon he preached at the May 2016 House on the Rock Faith to Faith Conference. In this particular statement that we are examining, Damina directly diminishes the relevance of the incarnate Christ.

In his inane opinion, there are two Jesuses, namely, the incarnate Christ and the glorified Christ. These two Christs aren’t one and the same Person. Damina believes the incarnate Christ is no more useful to him than a teaspoon of water thrown to quell a raging house fire.

Last time, we summarily dismissed Abel Damina’s preposterous assertion that the incarnate is a different Person from the glorified Christ. Citing several Bible passages as witnesses, we pointed out that the incarnate Christ who walked the earth for thirty-three years is the glorified Christ who ascended to Heaven and is now seated at the right hand of God where heavenly messengers and authorities and powers submit to His supremacy. The incarnate Christ, who is the glorified Christ, is YAHWEH, the Creator of the Universe. 

Colossians 1:15-20

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

Cross references: John 1:1-3, John 1:14, Acts 2:32-33, Romans 1:3-4, Philippians 2:6-11, 1 Timothy 3:16, Colossians 1:15-20, Hebrews 1:3, 1 John 1:1-2.

Today’s iteration of the commentary series will seek to refute Abel Damina’s claim that despite His best efforts and in spite of all the spectacular miracles that He was able to perform, the incarnate Christ couldn’t perform the most important miracle of all, which is the miracle of getting someone saved. 

As Abel Damina puts it.

“There are two Jesuses in the Bible. There’s the incarnate Christ, which was not useful to me. Then there’s a glorified Christ. These are two different Christs. Let me tell you, there was one miracle Jesus couldn’t do as the incarnate. He couldn’t do it. As an incarnate Christ, He couldn’t do one particular miracle. And that’s a miracle of miracles. He couldn’t. Yeah. He couldn’t. He did everything…deaf, dumb, everything…raise the dead and all that. But he couldn't get anybody born again.”

This particular argument by Damina is one that should prompt any right-thinking believer to ask, “Which Bible does Abel Damina read exactly?” It’s such an outlandish assertion that instantly disqualifies anyone from ever being a shepherd of God’s flock. A pastor who would suggest that the incarnate Christ didn’t win a single soul is a clear and present danger to the souls of men.

You don’t have to be a Bible scholar with multiple degrees in Theology to know that the Lord Jesus had an inner circle of Twelve disciples whose names can be found everywhere in the four Canonical Gospels. Simon Peter, Andrew (Peter’s brother), James (son of Zebedee), John (James’ brother), Philip, Bartholomew (also called Nathanael), Matthew (the tax collector, also Levi), Thomas (Didymus), James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas son of James (also called Thaddeus), and Judas Iscariot.

We read about the conversion of Simon Peter and Andrew, the sons of Jonah, and that of John and James, the sons of Zebedee in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew.

Mark 1:16-20

“Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.”

In the Gospel of John is an account of the call of Philip and his brother Nathaniel.

John 1:43-51

“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

If, as Abel Damina claims, the incarnate Christ couldn’t get anyone born again, who then were the twelve people who sat with Christ for the last Passover meal? Is Damina suggesting that these disciples of Christ were not born again? And if they were born again, is Damina implying that it wasn’t the incarnate Christ who got them born again?

Besides the Twelve core disciples who would later become the Apostles, the Lord Jesus also had a contingent of a minimum of at least seventy-two other disciples. These were the seventy-two people He sent on one of the very first Christian missions.

Luke 10:1

“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.”

After His resurrection, the Bible tells us that the resurrected Christ appeared to more than five hundred brothers who were eyewitnesses to His resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:3-6

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”

In addition, there were one hundred and twenty people gathered in the Upper Room when the disciples cast lot and chose Mathias to replace Judas Iscariot as the 12th Apostle.

Acts 1:15

“In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120).”

These were people the Lord Jesus called and converted Himself. None of them was a believer in Christ until they got born again by the incarnate Christ. All of them got saved as a direct result of the evangelistic ministry of the incarnate Christ. Yet, Abel Damina, in his biblical ignorance, embarrasses himself with his ridiculous assertion that the incarnate Christ did not get anyone born again.

What’s more alarming in all of this is the reaction of the audience who were listening to and consuming Abel Damina’s heretical drivel. When he uttered his uninformed blasphemy, you would have thought the congregation would get on their feet and walk out of the church. Alas, that never happened. Instead of walking out on the heretic, they all jumped on their feet in exhilaration, clapped their hands in awe and admiration, and they let out a hoot with rapturous elation. 

That such sacrilegious remarks would draw, of all things, an exuberant and deferential response from people who call themselves followers of Christ highlights the depth of biblical ignorance and the extent of the lack of spiritual discernment plaguing the Church today.

It is a tragedy of unimaginable proportion that many Christians fail to realize there are certain theological and doctrinal beliefs someone may hold that will automatically disqualify them from salvation. The reason for this is simple. To hold on to theologies and doctrines that the Apostles of the Lord Jesus did not teach is, essentially, to believe in a different gospel of a different Jesus. Since a different gospel of a different Jesus is no gospel at all, such a gospel is one that condemns and not a Gospel that saves.

Paul makes this explicit in his letters to the Galatians and Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 11:4

“For if someone comes and proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different Spirit than the One you received, or a different Gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it very easily.”

Galatians 1:6-9

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different Gospel – not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the Gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a Gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

The gospel that Abel Damina preaches is an aberrant gospel that is contrary to the true Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as the Bible says, anyone who preaches a gospel that is contrary to the Gospel preached by the Lord Jesus and His Apostles is anathema, i.e., damned and doomed.