TomboyMom

Am I right on this, oh biblical experts?
It is a basic tenet of the Christian faith that Jesus is God.
Jesus never said that he is God.
Jesus said that the highest commandment is that God is one, or something along those lines.
Therefore to believe that Jesus is God violates Jesus' own words.
?

Julian

Well, it's debatable (what isn't?)... Jesus does say that he and the father are one but this may merely imply agreement. John 1:1 also seems to imply that the word (become flesh in Jesus) is god. He never directly says that he is god, as far as I recall.

Julian

TomboyMom

And doesn't he say that the most important commandment is that there is one God?

Julian

Indeed he does:

Mark 12
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'

TomboyMom

So how do Christians reconcile this with the trinity. I mean, I know they say it's a 3-in-1 deal, but the 3 part still violates the most important commandment, right? I mean, if you say Jesus is God, how can God be one?

rhutchin

The Bible says that God is a spirit. To identify God as the Holy Spirit does not detract from this. The Holy Spirit is another name for God and is uniquely identified with God indwelling, and interacting with, the saved. God can be said to express Himself in form of the Holy Spirit. One can say that the Holy Spirit did this or that and it is the same as saying that God did this or that.

God can cause the pregnancy of a woman (Mary) and then, as a spirit, can infuse the child conceived so that the child can be said to be God. Since the essence of a person is his spirit and not the body, Jesus can be described as the spirit that indwell a body and was known as a man called Jesus. When Jesus was crucified, He gave up that body which then died, but Jesus still lived as God the spirit.

This is one of many attempts to explain the trinity thing, maybe no the worse but no the best either.

Julian

To paraphrase: It's a mystery. It makes no sense, so it cannot be explained. We are really polytheists, but want to be monotheists, so we made up this bizarre theory which is, of course, entirely impossible.

To wit: 1 + 1 + 1 = 1

Get it? No? Don't worry, no one else understands it, either... You will hear it explained all the time, though. They are three, yet they are one... Get it? No?

Julian

fast

It's my opinion that most Christians do not view Jesus as God. There are some, yes, but not as many as some may lead us to believe.

The majority opinion that most conservative ministers hold is that Jesus is the Son of God. They may be 'as one' in spirit, but certainly not the same entity (or being).

God did not turn it/himself into Jesus. There are sects of Christianity and a few scattered confused (not unlike myself sometimes) that do hold that, but if I were a Christian believer, I would believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He (not God) died for our sins.

gregor

Is Jesus is god according to Mark? Was he god until he was adopted after death?

Mark 10:17-31

A man ran up to Jesus and asked 1"Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus then said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One--God. "

Seems like a denial of divinity at this point (or the infamous Messianic secret)

michael wellenberg

That´s true. At this early stage as is reflected in Mark also the references to Son of God do not point to a divine status but rather to a Messianic title.

Michael