-The "I Am's" Of Christ
-By" Henry Morris, Ph.D.
-- --(this is lengthy, read at your convenience)

Those "Christians" who think of the Lord Jesus Christ as just a great man who never really claimed to be God need to confront His amazing statement to the scribes and Pharisees there in Jerusalem when they were berating Him in the temple. "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day," He said. Then, when they questioned that assertion, He went on to insist that "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:56,58).

This was such a bold claim to deity, that they immediately prepared to stone Him for what they thought was blasphemy. But He somehow "hid Himself," (v.59) and escaped.

Of course, if He was not God, what He said was blasphemous, which was a capital crime under the Mosaic law (Leviticus 24:16). He was actually claiming to be the God to whom Moses spoke at the burning bush, when he asked God what His name was. God had answered that His name was "I AM" (Exodus 3:14)