Justin Bieber Sparks VMA Twitter Theological Debate After Thanking 'God and Jesus'

By Ray Downs, Christian Post Reporter Monday, August 29, 2011

In his award acceptance speech for “Best Male Video” at the MTV video music awards last night, Justin Bieber expressed his gratitude “not only to God but to Jesus,” which sparked a debate on Twitter about the difference between the two.

Some tweeters were angry at Bieber for what they felt was an incorrect discernment between the two. @zaccbible tweeted, “Bieber failed. God and Jesus are the same. Its just that one's on Earth.... #celebrityfail.”

@edemfo complained that, “Bieber doesn't know the difference btw God and Jesus...”

And @teganaudrey considered Bieber’s statement as “awkward moment when biebs thanks jesus and god, and they are the same person…”

The theological twitter trend caused others to stick up for the discernment between Jesus and God.

FuzzyRobson replied to @teganaudrey by saying, “awkward moment for you dear. Jesus and God are NOT the same person at all. Were you not paying attention at school?”

And @ilovelillipop_ tweeted, “I was just reading some God and Jesus tweets and realized some ppl think that God and Jesus are the same thing. I'm shocked.”

Hitting on what is at the root of the debate, which is the belief that Jesus and God are part of a trinity that includes the Holy Ghost and co-exist as one, @boywithredwings took a more serious approach to the twitter debate when he said, “By thanking "God and Jesus", by signaling Nazarene and Deity are not co-terminus, Justin Bieber heralds the Post-Christian era. #VMAs.”

Comedian @normmcdonald also participated in the Holy Trinity debate when he tweeted, “In his VMA acceptance speech Justin Bieber thanked God and also Jesus. Way to leave out the Holy Ghost, Infidel.”

Whichever belief one has on the difference between God and Jesus, the most interesting part of this theological debate on Twitter might be the fact that it erupted from a 20 second acceptance speech from a 17 year-old pop star.

@antheaButler summarized the trending topic quite succinctly when she tweeted, “Waking up and finding that Justin #Bieber has started a theological conversation about #God and #Jesus is like, wow.”