As I said earlier, it is a paraphrase of Philippians 2:6-8—the Son of God put aside his divine prerogatives and lived as a man voluntarily with human limitations–he got hungry, he got tired, and he suffered pain. Nevertheless, He was still fully God and fully man. He lived as a man with voluntary limitations yet still had access to his divine attributes which was demonstrated on numerous occasions.

I get it that maybe you don’t like his teaching and some of the things he has to say, but nothing that I have ever read or heard him say is actually theologically heretical. I am pretty tired of all the nitpicking and out of context quotes that folks have tried to use against him.

**Note: After a year and a half I am finally closing the comment line on this article. Nearly all of the comments to date have violated my comment policy in some way or another and I don’t expect it to get any better. Of the 40+ comments, only a couple actually referred to my original article. I doubt that most of commentors ever even bothered to read it in the first place.

Blessings,
Dr. Michael G. Davis

I need to amend my last comment to you. I just discovered that I misquoted Mr. Johnson about the anointing being Jesus connection to the divine. Actually he said the anointing was Jesus, the man’s connection to the divine. That may have a different connotation. However, I can’t change my mind any about what he seems to say about Jesus laying His divinity aside. I’m sorry about my error above.

Sorry Michael, but the plain meaning of putting aside divine prerogatives and laying His divinity aside, are in my mind, two vastly different things. It is one thing to lay aside some of the things that go with divinity. It is another all together to lay your divinity aside. Maybe he is not very clear in his meaning, but if you take what he says literally, he is saying exactly what I said he was. Bill Johnson is also quoted as saying that everything Jesus did on the earth was as a man in right relationship with the Father and that the anointing was his connection with divinity. If Bill means he was fully God as you claim, why in the world would He need the anointing to connect Him with divinity? To say that He was fully God but that the way He was connected to God was through the anointing makes absolutely no sence whatsoever. I am not saying at all that I believe the Holy Spirit wasn’t working through Jesus while He was on this earth. I just simply don’t think Bill Johnson’s statements make any sence at all if he does indeed believe that Jesus was fully divine.

It is a fact that the Son of God put aside his divine prerogatives and lived as a man without sin—voluntarily with human limitations–he got hungry, he got tired, and he suffered pain. No major Christian theologian would disagree. He was fully God and fully man.

Notice the last line: “…and then die in the place of mankind for sin.”–how could he die in the place of all mankind–only because he was divine. The line confirms his divinity–it doesn’t say that he died on the cross as merely a man.

I realize that this is a very old thread. But I read your question wanting verification that Bill Johnson believed Jesus was just a man and not God when He died on the cross. I just came across a lenghty review of his book, “When Heaven Invades Earth”. Here is the link to that site: http://books.google.com/books?id=msDOo0EM6ucC&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79&dq=bill+johnson+Jesus+laid+aside+divinity&source=web&ots=9TK8GFk24q&sig=0ATWPAlV1Z6Yeh-5f4e_a6t2oUY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPA79,M1

Note that on page 79 he says, “Jesus lived His life with human limitations. He laid His divinity aside’ as He sought to fulfill the assignment given Him by the Father: to live life as a man without sin, and then die in the place of mankind for sin.”

I wonder whether any heathen, backslidden, oppressed, rebellious, broken, deceived, addicted, or discouraged people (i.e. folk for whom Jesus shed His blood) —reading your blogs — are NOW inspired to trust their eternal souls to Jesus because you can wordsmith human knowledge and wisdom better than the other one can.

Get a life! A prayer life..a sacrificial life..a serving life…….a loving life…a gracious life……….and let God be the judge of His church….just as he is the Savior of the world.

God Bless,
Michael

I just want to apologise for writing comments on this blog. I actually typed into google “bill johnson error” and this blog came up.

I don’t want to offend you and am I correct in thinking this is your blog?

Anyway love in Christ and God bless you.