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Josh McDowell's Misuse of John 10:18

In his book Jesus - A Biblical Defense of His Deity, co-authored by Bart Larson, in a chapter entitled "Jesus Christ Possesses the Authority of God", the Evangelical theologian Josh McDowell writes:

Josh McDowell - Jesus - A Biblical Defense of His Deity, Chapter 4

Had Authority to Resurrect Himself
Even while Jesus was subject to death as a man, He claimed the power and authority to resurrect Himself, a power only God could have. Some people might ask, "If Jesus Christ is God, how could He resurrect Himself?" In John 2:19 Jesus said, "Destroy this temple [referring to his body - v. 21], and in three days I will raise it up." Concerning His life He said, "I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again" (John 10:18).

Above, McDowell says that the ability of Jesus to resurrect Himself was "a power only God could have". This type of argument is given in various ways in Trinitarian apologetics, often being applied to Jesus's forgiving of sins, receiving worship, raising the dead, being the judge of mankind, receiving prayer, and so on.

The difficulty with this type of argumentation is that each of these things are powers or privileges which God can delegate to another, without any implied contradiction. God is at liberty to delegate whichever authority or power to whoever He desires to give it to.

Consider the aforementioned examples:

  • Forgiving sins - Jesus implies that He has been delegated the authority to forgive sins (Matthew 9:6, Mark 2:10, Luke 5:24), as does Matthew, arguably (Matthew 9:8). Later, He Himself arguably delegates this authority to His followers (John 20:23)
  • Receiving worship - When Jesus receives worship, it is explicitly said to be "to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:11)
  • Raising the dead - The Apostle Peter is given the power to raise a dead woman named Tabitha in the book of Acts (Acts 9:36-42)
  • Being the judge of mankind - Jesus being the judge of all mankind is a position which is explicitly said to delegated, with the Bible saying that the Father "has given all judgment to the Son" (John 5:22), and that the Father has "given him authority to execute judgment" (John 5:27)
  • Receiving prayer - When speaking on answering prayer, Jesus says at one point that it is so "that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13), but, as stated earlier, there is no logical difficulty which is even implied by God designating an agent to hear or answer prayer

Then, in regard to the example McDowell gives in his book of Jesus having the power to raise Himself, an examination of the full verse that he references once again demonstrates that Jesus being able to raise Himself from the dead is something that has been commanded of Him by the Father, indicating that Jesus is God's agent, who has been given delegated authority:

John 10:18

18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

This delegated authority to raise Himself is also arguably what is being referred to when Jesus says, "as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself" (John 5:26). Additionally, as a general rule, the Bible speaks of the Father raising the Son (Acts 2:24, 2:32, 3:15, 4:10, 5:30, 10:40, 13:30, 13:34, 13:37, Romans 4:24, 6:4, 8:11, 10:9: 1 Corinthians 6:14, 15:15: 2 Corinthians 4:14, Galatians 1:1, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 2:12: 1 Thessalonians 1:10, Hebrews 13:20: 1 Peter 1:21), which would indicate that the power ultimately came from the Father.

Therefore, this type of "argument from divine prerogatives", when analyzed in its totality, actually supports a Unitarian view of God and Jesus. If Jesus is having these things delegated to Himself by God, then Jesus is distinct from God, and is not God. If Jesus Himself were God, then He would already have all of these things, and so would not need to be delegated any of them. If He possessed the divine nature, and was delegating these things to His "human nature", then it would be strange that none of the passages at all state that He was giving these things to Himself, but rather, always speak of God as a separate subject from Him, or mention the Father specifically. These factors favor the view of Scripture that places God above Jesus, and distinguishes them from each other.