The Deity of Jesus Christ.
Oprah’s Winfrey’s Worldview
In Matthew 16:13-15, Jesus asked his disciples two questions: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” and “…who do you say that I am?” To the first question, the disciples responded, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” Although the general public was uncertain of Jesus’ true identity, they still associated him with other renowned men of God. Jesus’ second question, “Who do you say that I am,” called for a personal and individual response from the disciples. Speaking for the rest of the disciples, Peter responded, “Thou art the Christ [the Messiah], the Son of the living God!” Jesus informed Peter that this knowledge was not the result of superior human intelligence but was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. Oprah’s answer to the second part of the question, “Who do you say that I am,” is quite different.
Concerning the deity of Christ, Oprah asserts, “And you know, it's been a journey to get to the place where I understand…that what I believe is that Jesus came to show us Christ consciousness.” Since people like Helen Schuman (ACIM), Marianna Williamson, Eckhart Tolle, Eric Butterworth, and others play such a major role in shaping Oprah’s view concerning the person of Jesus Christ, examining their teachings on the subject sheds valuable insight into exactly what Oprah means by “Christ consciousness” as it relates to the deity of Christ.
Schucman’s asserts that as a man, Jesus identified with Christ after seeing the face of Christ in humanity and at that point of consciousness became one with God. Purportedly, Jesus was able to lead people back to God only because he first “saw the road” for himself, and “he followed it.” If what Oprah states were true, it would means that Jesus had to redeem himself and find God on his own before leading anyone else to God. As such, ACIM claims further that every individual is Christ: “Is he [Jesus] the Christ? O yes, along with you.”
Eric Butterworth is more direct in his objections to the deity of Christ when he writes, We cannot catch the real dynamic of Jesus unless we see that he was a man, a highly evolved man to be sure, but a man.…He was not God becoming man; rather, he was man on the quest, man making the great discovery of his innate Divinity — of the God-possibility within — man proving the Christ in man, his inherent potential for overcoming and for eternal life.
Additionally, Butterworth asserts that the divinity of man is a universal principle that applies not only to Jesus but even includes the evilest of people like Pilate, Judas, Hitler, and Eichmann. In other words, Jesus symbolizes the spirit that already exists in all of humanity “who is given the chance to begin again.” Christ-consciousness is perceived only as a mental creation that “abides unchanged forever in the Mind of God.” Under the ACIM’s teachings, the concept of Christ being God come in the flesh amounts to an invention by God designed to demonstrate a set of principles and laws humanity can use to find the inner God in themselves.
In addition, holding to ACIM’s teachings, Oprah refutes the biblical account, which states that Jesus came into the world to die for sins of humanity and contends that the man Jesus was created to “show us the way of the heart.” Furthermore, she alleges that the man Jesus lived in a human body in order to show humanity exactly how to accomplish a shift in thinking that would open one up to a “higher consciousness” by illustrating various principles and laws necessary for humankind to achieve the level of Christ consciousness. It appears that Oprah’s final disposition on the deity of Christ is that he was just another man and that the concept of Christ is a thought, concept, or principle fabricated and stuck in the mind of God. In the final analysis, Christ-consciousness is a state of mind in which humanity realizes that sin never separated from
them from God and that in their current state humanity is indeed Sons of God.
Oprah’s worldview also aligns with the teaching of Marianne Williamson in shaping her view concerning the term Christ. Williamson postulates that the word “Christ” is a psychological term that refers to the “common thread of divine love that is the core and essence of every human mind.” “The Christian religion,” Williamson elaborates, “has no monopoly on the Christ, or on Jesus himself. In every generation, we must rediscover truth for ourselves. Who is Jesus? He is a personal symbol of the Holy Spirit. Having been healed totally by the Holy Spirit, He has become one with Him. He’s not the only face the Holy Spirit takes. His is a face.” Extending this theory further, Williamson concludes that all of humanity is “one indivisible divine mind.” For Williamson and Oprah, finding Christ within self is synonymous with accepting Christ. “I accept the Christ within me, I accept the beauty within me as who I really am,” Williamson proclaims. Again, Oprah affirms Williamson’s concept of Christ during the online class she taught with Eckhart Tolle.