Denial Of God In The Flesh—A False Doctrine
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, September 9, 2026 (Donate)
Many cultic groups (e.g., Jehovah’s Witnesses, Islam, Judaism,
and Mormonism, etc.) hold positions that the Creator God did not take on flesh
and become a man (while remaining fully God). Jehovah’s Witnesses, for instance,
hold that instead, a created angel, Michael, took on flesh and became the man
Jesus Christ.
The 66 books of the Bible reveal that salvation is predicated
on true identity of Jesus Christ. A person can’t reject the biblical Christ, and
then substitute a different Jesus, and still expect true salvation.
God’s Word says that denying that Jesus Christ came in the
flesh as a mark of false doctrine and antichrist teaching (1 John 4:2-3; 2 John
7). Thus, they don’t follow the true Christ and don’t have the true Christ. When
cultic groups deviate into this false doctrine, they have blatantly denied
Christ who is God.
Jesus Christ Came In The Flesh
John gives Christians a straightforward test:
By this you know the Spirit of God:
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have
heard was coming, and is now already in the world. (1 John 4:2-3, NKJV).
Simply put, every spirit that doesn’t confess Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh "is not of God" (1 John 4:3). John identifies
this with the spirit of the Antichrist.
This doctrine appears throughout Scripture. The eternal,
uncreated Word "became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:1, 14).
Jesus’ physical body was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary (Matthew
1:18-25; Luke 1:30-35).
Thus, he attained genetic material from Mary as well as via the
power of the Holy Spirit. By emptying Himself, He experienced human limitations
such as hunger and thirst (Matthew 4:2; John 19:28), suffered physically (1
Peter 2:24), died (1 Corinthians 15:3), but due to His infinite godly
attributes, He physically rose from the dead (Luke 24:39). Consider this
emptying as described in Philippians:
Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not
count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking
the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in
human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even
death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8, ESV)
As a point of clarification, Christ becoming man and taking
on flesh didn’t mean that He ceased or stopped being God. He is fully God
and remained so, though He emptied Himself, and also became fully man.
Jesus is Immanuel, meaning "God with us" (Isaiah
7:14; Matthew 1:23). Thomas called Jesus “God” directly in John 20:28.
Colossians 2:8-9 (NKJV) says,
See to it that no one takes you
captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according
to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him
the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
Jesus is God in the flesh according to Scripture. The
biblical Christ is therefore entirely God and became entirely man—your and my relative!
A Different Christ Can’t Save
Salvation doesn’t come merely from believing in someone
named Jesus. Salvation comes through the actual Jesus Christ revealed by God.
Paul warned about those preaching another Jesus (2
Corinthians 11:4). Jesus likewise warned that "false Christs" would
arise (Matthew 24:24). The Bible even records one of these false Christs—Bar-Jesus,
which means false Jesus in Acts 13:6!
Someone could therefore use the name "Jesus" while
believing in a fundamentally different person. A Jesus who is merely a created
being, an angel, a spirit pretending to possess flesh, or merely an ordinary
man isn’t the Jesus revealed in Scripture.
The Islamic Jesus is just a mere created being who is a prophet
(demoting His Godhead); the Mormon Jesus is a man who became one of many gods
(polytheism) who is lesser than the universe; those holding to Judaism believe
that Jesus isn’t God in the flesh either and denies the Son of God. Consider what
the Holy Spirit says about denying and hating the Son:
Whoever denies the Son does not
have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. (1
John 2:23, NKJV)
"He who hates Me hates My
Father also" (John 15:23, NKJV).
It is a serious matter with eternal consequences.
And He said to them, “You are from
beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. “Therefore
I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I
am He, you will die in your sins.” (John 8:23-24, NKJV).
Acts 4:12 similarly says that salvation is found in no other.
Salvation requires the biblical Christ, not a counterfeit or false/bar
Christ.
Therefore, a person can’t biblically say, "I worship
the true God, but I reject Jesus as God." Rejecting the Son revealed by
the Father is totally rejecting the Father.
Why False Christs Negates Salvation
The issue becomes especially clear in 1 John 5:11-12:
And this is the testimony: that God
has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has
life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (NKJV)
This isn’t presented as a minor theological disagreement—but
an essential one! Eternal life is found in the Son of God who is God in the
flesh. Remove the true Son, and the biblical basis for salvation is removed
with Him.
2 John gives a warning. Those who deny Jesus Christ coming
in the flesh are called deceivers and antichrists (e.g., 2 John
7), and whoever doesn’t abide in the doctrine of Christ doesn’t have God (e.g.,
2 John 9). Again, this is serious.
Conclusion
Therefore, according to Scripture, denying Christ's
incarnation, deity, or true identity as fully God isn’t simply getting a
secondary doctrine wrong—it replaces the biblical Jesus with a false Christ.
And a false Christ can’t save.
The biblical confession is that Jesus Christ is the eternal
Son of God who truly came in the flesh, died for sins, bodily rose again, and
is Lord. To reject this Christ is to reject the Son; to reject the Son is to
reject the Father; and to be without the Son is to be without eternal life.
Bodie Hodge, Ken
Ham's son in law, has been an apologist defending 6-day creation and opposing
evolution since 1998. He spent 21 years working at Answers in Genesis as
a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding news anchor for Answers
News. He was also head of the Oversight Council.
Bodie
launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal
website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken
on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
Mr. Hodge earned a
Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale (SIUC). Then he taught at SIUC for a couple of years as a
Visiting Instructor teaching all levels of undergraduate engineering and
running a materials lab and a CAD lab. He did research on advanced ceramic
materials to develop a new method of production of titanium diboride with a
grant from Lockheed Martin. He worked as a Test Engineer for Caterpillar,
Inc., prior to entering full-time ministry.
His love of science
was coupled with a love of history, philosophy, and theology. For about one
year of his life, Bodie was editing and updating a theological, historical, and
scientific dictionary/encyclopedia. Mr. Hodge has over 25 years of experience in
writing, speaking and researching in these fields.
