I've had several discussions with a cult member of late who is seeking. He has a friend from the same cult who is glued to the cult, but this guy is on the fence. He is asking me questions when I see him and he says that I explain things to him like nobody else ever has. That isn't surprising, considering where has looked for answers before.

I have given him a Bible and he started reading it. I don't know if he still is. The cult he belongs to has a few books of their own. One subject that has come up in the course of discussions we've had has been the Deity of Jesus. Did Jesus ever really say that He was God?

Mark said it in the first verse of his gospel account. (See Mark 1:1) In Luke's account, Chapter 1:35, the angel told Mary that she would give birth to the Son of God. John the Baptist testified that Jesus was the Son of God in John 1:34. Nathaniel said it was so fifteen verses later and Martha certainly believed it ten chapters later. (John 11:27)

The Roman centurion said so in Mathew 27:54. Jesus laid claim to having said it in John 10:36 and clearly implied His Deity one chapter later in John 11:4. In Matthew 8:29, Luke 4:1 and Mark 3:11 we can even read how the demons believed him to be the Son of God.

The charge leveled against Jesus centered around His claim to be the Son of God. (See Matthew 27:43 and John 19:7) He never denied that charge either. In Luke 22:70, he virtually admitted to it.

The Gospel of John show the Deity of Jesus. The friend of the guy I'm talking to wonders why Jesus didn't just say it out plainly. I think that the answer to that question is found in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16, verses 15 through 17:

15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus answered and said 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. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
20 Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

I don't think Jesus wanted Peter and the rest of His disciples to believe He was the Son of God for any other reason than that God the Father has brought them to that conclusion by the power of the Holy Spirit, based on the evidence of Him in Scripture and upon who Jesus was, how He lived His life and upon His teaching.