"The position of Judaism in respect to the founder of Christianity is altogether negative, namely as denying his divinity; that the pivot on which Christianity revolves, Jesus of Nazareth, has no place in Jewish theology" ("Jewish Year Book," 1940).

It is entirely logical and reasonable to believe that God, whom both Jews and Christians believe to be an Infinite, Omnipotent Being, could assume a human nature, in union with His divine nature, without being divided in substance, if He so willed. To think otherwise, is to deny that God is Omnipotent, Almighty. The question is not merely whether God can unite His divine nature with a human nature, but did He do so in the person of Jesus.
   Your denial that Jesus claimed to be God is to be dealt with in this letter, though the proof, that Jesus was true God as well as true man, must be looked for in His life and works. Before answering your assertion, permit me to express the hope that what Jesus said of Himself will impress you as favorably as it did me when first I seriously studied His life. I, like a multitude of non-Christians, held Jesus as a man in high regard, considering His ethical code to be of the highest order. Hence a conflict went on within me for quite a while, as to disbelieve what Jesus said of Himself, is to disbelieve the most truthful and reasonable-minded person that ever trod the earth.
   "Let us look at the record."  The best way to begin is to find out if there is any suggestion in the Old Testament of the expected Messiah being God. This is necessary, for what Jesus said of Himself is but the declaration of what the Messiah was expected to be, "the God with us." For this information, we shall go to one biblical authority only. That is Isaiah, the greatest of the prophets, whose Book is foremost among Messianic prophetic writings. In Chapter 40 we are told of the forerunner of the Messiah, in words John the Baptist used, which designate Jesus as "the Lord" -

"Hearken to the voice of one crying in the desert, make ready the way of the Lord, make straight His path" (5:3).

In the same chapter, we read -

"The glory of the Lord shall be revealed" (5:5)
"Behold the Lord shall come with strength" (5:10).

In Chapter 9, Isaiah says (interpolations mine) -

"A child shall be born to us, a Son is given to us - and His name shall be called Wonderful (being both human and divine, performing great miracles), Counselor (sublimely wise, guide to humanity), God the Mighty, (infinite conqueror of evil desires), Father of the world to come, (has the means of salvation, is final judge of the living and the dead), Prince of Peace (is the means of amicable relations of man with God the father, and with his fellowman), He shall sit on the throne of David" (in His spiritual Messianic kingdom, the Church).

In Chapter 7:14, Isaiah tells of the "virgin (who) shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel," which translated from the Hebrew, means, "God with us." In Chapter 35:4, we read ". . . behold your God will bring the revenge of recompense: God Himself will come and save you."
   All this is based upon the pre-existence of the Messiah, who in time took to Himself a human nature. This "conception (of the) pre-existence of the Messiah is met with in Pesikta Rabati" (explanation of texts in the Old Testament). In it we are told that -

"In accordance with the Messiological section of Enoch, one of the passages says: 'At the beginning of the creation of the world was born King Messiah, who mounted into God's thoughts before the world was made'; and in another passage it is related that God contemplated the Messiah and his works before the creation of the world and concealed him under His throne; that Satan, having asked God who the light was under His throne, was told it was the one who would bring him shame in the future, and being then allowed at his request, to see the Messiah, he trembled and sank to the ground, crying out, 'Truly this is the Messiah who will deliver me and all heathen kings over to hell."'

   The pre-existent Messiah is presented also in the Haggadah (matter in Talmudic and Rabbinical literature, Pas. 54a; Ned. 39a; Yak. I, 20, et al) "where the name of the Messiah is included among the seven things created before the world was made, and where he is called 'Yinnon,' reference being made to Psalm 72 (Vulgate Bible, Ps. 71)," wherein the kingdom of the Messiah is portrayed.
   Having presented evidence sufficient to prove that the expected of Israel being God is foretold in the Old Testament, and in the Haggadah, we may look at what Jesus said of Himself in that regard. Three incidents will suffice to prove that-He claimed to be God. If that claim is not true, then would there be warrant to consider Jesus to be mentally on the absurd level of "Father Divine of Harlem," whose followers say, with his assent, that he is God. First, comes the declaration of Jesus that He had existed before Abraham, for which the Jews took Him to task (St. John 8:48-59), saying - "Are we not right in saying that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?"

"Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?"

The answer was direct and unequivocal -

"Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be I AM.'

Thus Jesus, "not yet fifty years old," claimed to have existed before Abraham, who had died a couple of thousand years before Jesus appeared upon earth. This is a positive assertion of pre-existence, that God the Son existed for all eternity as the Second Person of the Triune God. In time, the "Word," which "was God -, was made flesh and dwelt among us," said St. John (I:3). This Second Person took on a human nature in time, as foretold in the Old Testament, wherein Daniel named the time (ix); Micheas the place (5:2); and Isaiah the manner of His birth (7:14).
   This answer of Jesus clinched the fact that He held Himself to have pre-existed, by claiming to be the "I AM," as God designated Himself when He spoke to Moses (Exodus 3:14) You know that the name "I AM WHO AM" has always been held in Israel to signify God as an Unchanging, Eternal Being. The Jews who questioned Jesus, were well aware of it, for "they therefore took up stones to cast at Him."  The claim, unless true, was deserving of death, according to the Mosaic Law -

"He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, dying let him die: all the multitude shall stone him, whether he be a native or stranger" (Lev. 24:16).

The second incident took place at the time Jesus met the paralytic at Capharnaum, when he said, "Man thy sins are forgiven thee" (St. Luke 5:i8-.24). The Scribes and Pharisees declared that to be blasphemy, for, as they rightly said, "Who can forgive sins, but God only?" The Catholic Church has always taught that God only can forgive sins, as did Jesus, in His own Name. Priests forgive sins, but in the name of Christ, who is God, and by His delegated power only (St. John 20:.23), and never in their own name, as that power belongs to God only. Jesus answered the charge of blasphemy by reasserting His divinity, and demonstrating it by a miracle. These are His words -

"But that you may know that the Son of man (using the title by which Daniel designated the Messiah, 7:13) has the power on earth to forgive sins, I say to thee arise, take up your pallet and go to thy house,"  which the paralytic did (St. Luke 5).

The third claim, and to me the most convincing, was made by Jesus when He was arrested, and stood as a criminal before Caiaphas, the Scribes, and the Elders at the Sanhedrin gathering, charged with blasphemy (St. Matt. 26). Caiaphas spoke in an impassioned manner -

"I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou art the Messiah, the Son of God?"

Here was an accused prisoner before an indignant judge, who commanded to be answered under oath, in the name of "the living God."  The answer was calm, deliberate, and given without hesitancy, "Thou hast said it," which means "I am." Surely this must be true, coming, as it did, from the lips of the greatest holy personage that ever trod the earth. Men have been known to lie in order to escape death, but not to be found guilty of a charge that every Jew knew meant death. It was not a mere man who answered the query; it was Jesus, who is God-Incarnate. The High Priest correctly understood the answer; he knew Jesus meant that He is the Son of God with a big S, "begotten," not made as you and I were made; that He is equal to the Father in substance, in his very nature. In the ordinary sense of the term, you and I, and all other men in the world, are sons of God, and to so declare was never considered to be a violation of the Mosaic Law. If the declaration of Jesus were not true, then would the High Priest and Sanhedrin have been justified in declaring, according to the Law that then governed Jews,-

"He has blasphemed; what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?" And they answered and said, - "He is liable to death." Then they spat in His face and buffetted Him; while the other struck His face with the palms of their hands - ."