You simply don’t believe the truth, especially if it doesn’t jive with your already established beliefs and agenda. You want the truth to be what you believe.
Originally Posted by Hastings
Think about what you have written here. Think hard about who this describes.
It describes you, to a T, when it comes to your Hebrew Roots Movement psychobabble.
It is not me that has "established beliefs and agenda". I admit there's a lot I don't know. The record is sparse but it does show a huge rift between Jesus' first churches in the years after his death and a certain revisionist of his message. That is clear. He had to be rescued by the Roman Army.
Jesus clearly did not claim to be God. He talked about God constantly as his father, prayed to God, gave credit to God.
I wasn't there. I could be wrong. I don't have "established beliefs and agenda". But I don't believe God cancelled the covenant and the miracle of the reincarnated nation of Israel is a huge clue. I will keep an open mind but the record of the early Christian followers of Jesus that formed churches in Jerusalem, Asia Minor, and even Ethiopia indicates they maintained a fealty to the Hebrew faith and expelled a preacher that claimed visions to the contrary.
I will keep reading the scriptures that we have and some of the discarded ones, but I cannot find evidence that Jesus claimed he was God. The statement about the Father and I are ONE is ambiguous at the very longest stretch, and I would take it to mean " I speak for my Father who sent me".
Here we go yet again…
John’s gospel clearly emphasizes the deity of Jesus.
When Jesus said He was the “I Am” (Almighty God), He was expressing His deity, all the way back to Exodus 3:14.
If you don’t believe Jesus is the “I Am”, you will die in your sins, John 6:24
How can Jesus give life if He isn’t God? John 5:21
How can Jesus be our judge if He isn’t God? John 5:22
How can Jesus be the living bread of life if He isn’t God? John 6:35, 48 With the living bread of Jesus, one will live forever, John 6:51
How can Jesus raise people up on the last day if He isn’t God? John 6:40, 54
How can Jesus and the Father be ONE if Jesus isn’t God? John 10:30
How can Jesus be the source of the resurrection and life if He isn’t God? John 11:25
If you don’t believe Jesus is God, you don’t have eternal life, John 3:36. Jesus is the source of eternal life.
You don’t want to believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord so you can have eternal life, John 5:40. Jesus affirmed His deity in just that one verse.
No one will force you to accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord. You can continue to reject Jesus as the source of life and salvation because human will allows that choice.
There are simply some who do not believe, John 6:64
Eyes are blinded and hearts are hardened, John 12:40
There is only ONE way to God, and that is through Jesus Christ, John 14:6
The one who rejects Jesus also rejects the Father, John 15:23
And that is only the book of John…
Have you noticed that John's accounts are often out of sequence with the synoptic gospels and that the last chapter appears to be a later addition?
Also John does a good bit of interpretive commenting of his own to explain what Jesus was saying.
And another issue that requires care in discerning Jesus' teachings is the losses that occur in interpreting things spoken in Aramaic or Hebrew and translated decades later into Greek and now several English versions. It is almost amusing to hear ignorant preachers (and others) explain to ignorant audiences the real meaning of the original Greek when they have no way of knowing the veracity of what they say. I'm guessing Greek has evolved as have other languages in 2000 years. By ignorant I mean unknowing not at all implying stupid although that might come into play also.
All in all I believe Jesus' core teachings came through if we stick to that.
If you think about it, just the fact that the NT was written in Greek, more specifically a high form of Greek is a major problem in and of itself.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
