Stop Pretending It’s Confusing: Why Jesus Is Called the Son of God

Picture this.
You went a trip to Egypt to see the Sphinx and the pyramids.
You love ancient monuments, so you fly to Cairo.
The smell is awful, but that won't stop you.
You catch a yellow bus heading towards Giza.
You're checking out the sights through the bus window when you suddenly realize that the guy sitting next to you is wearing a suicide vest.
He's a terrorist heading to the Sphinx to blow it up, because images are forbidden in Islam.
Unless you're a prepubescent girl, in which case, they'll let you slide.
Just ask Aisha.

Your new jihadi friend doesn't want to draw attention to himself because he's on a mission.
So he tries to distract you by asking, “Why do Christians call Jesus the Son of God?”
What do you say?
Are you ready to answer him?
Trust me.
It's a good idea to plan out your response now before it happens.

So, why do Christians call Jesus the Son of God?

According to the Quran, Christians call Jesus the Son of God because we're imitating the pagans.
Surah 9, Verse 30.
“And the Jews say, Ezra is the son of Allah. And the Christians say, the Messiah is the son of Allah. That is the saying with their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah Himself fighteth against them. How perverse are they!”

It's ironic that the Quran accuses Jews and Christians of imitating pagans when some of Islam's most basic practices—like taking the pilgrimage to Mecca, walking circles around the Kaaba, kissing the Black Stone, and so on—were copied directly from idol-worshiping pagans.
But let's ignore that for now.

So Jews and Christians are perverse because we imitate the unbelievers of old.
This verse comes right after Surah 9, Verse 29, where Allah commands his followers to violently subjugate Jews and Christians.
Verse 30 provides the justification for subjugating us.
Jews and Christians have to be subjugated because we're actually polytheists, according to the Quran.

Strange.
I thought Islam was the religion of peace.

Of course, Allah says that Jews call Ezra the son of Allah.
Have you ever, in your entire life, anywhere on the planet, heard a Jew calling Ezra the son of Allah?
Neither have I.
Neither has anyone.

So, as is so often the case, Allah doesn't seem to know what he's talking about when he's commanding his followers to violently subjugate people.
But even though he's wrong about Jews here, is he right about Christians?
Do Christians call Jesus the Son of God because we're imitating the unbelievers of old?
Or do we call Jesus the Son of God because he was identified as the Son of God by a mind-boggling, unparalleled cloud of witnesses?

Let’s find out.

Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, and in Matthew 3, when Jesus comes out of the water, the Spirit of God descends as a dove, and a voice out of the heavens proclaims, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
A voice out of the heavens says, “This is my beloved Son,” which means that the voice was the voice of the Father.

But how do we know whom the Father was referring to?
How do we know he wasn't talking about John the Baptist or someone else?
Well, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven and landed on Jesus.
Notice, the Father and the Holy Spirit together identify Jesus as the Son of God.

And Jesus repeatedly identifies himself as the Son of God.
At his trial, for instance, in Mark 14, the High Priest asks him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”
Jesus answers, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

So Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in complete agreement that Jesus is the divine Son of God.

In Luke 1, the Angel Gabriel says to Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”

Jesus is to be called the Son of the Most High, according to the Angel Gabriel.

What about the prophets?
John the Baptist was a prophet, according to both Christianity and Islam.
In John 1, he tells his followers about Jesus and says, “I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

That's the testimony of the prophets.

How about Jesus’ apostles?
At the end of John 1, the apostle Nathanael says to Jesus, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.”
In Matthew 16, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”
Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Now, if Jesus were just a prophet, this would have been a really good time to rebuke Peter.
Instead, Jesus says to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

In Matthew 14, Jesus walks on water during a storm.
After stepping into the boat, the wind stops, and his disciples bow down and worship him, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”

But it's not just his male followers who call him the Son of God.
In John 11, Lazarus dies, and Martha, the sister of Lazarus, meets Jesus on his way to raise Lazarus from the dead.
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Martha and the apostles and John the Baptist were all Jews who believed in Jesus.
But even the Jewish leaders who rejected Jesus admitted that he was claiming to be the Son of God.
At his crucifixion, they mocked him and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

So whether they believed him or not, the Jews of his time acknowledged that Jesus was claiming to be the Son of God.

And even some of the Romans called Jesus the Son of God.
When Jesus died by crucifixion, there was an earthquake, and the Roman centurion and those who were with him shouted, “Truly, this was the Son of God.”

Even demons would call Jesus the Son of God as he was casting them out of people.
We read in Luke 4, “And demons also came out of many, crying, ‘You are the Son of God.’”

Now think about the diversity of witnesses we have here.
The Father identifies Jesus as the Son of God.
Jesus identifies himself as the Son of God.
The Holy Spirit identifies Jesus as the Son of God.
The Angel Gabriel identifies Jesus as the Son of God.
The Prophet John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the Son of God.
Jesus’ apostles identify him as the Son of God.
Martha identifies him as the Son of God.
Roman soldiers identify him as the Son of God.
Demons identify him as the Son of God.

And people who certainly didn't believe that he's the Son of God publicly proclaimed that he was claiming to be the Son of God.

All three persons of the Trinity, prophets and apostles, angels and demons, men and women, Jews and Gentiles—anyone who could possibly identify Jesus as the Son of God—identified him as the Son of God.