Jesus is the son of God, the Messiah to Israel, and the now resurrected Lord Christ to the Christian who sits at the right hand of God as second in command and is the head of the Church that is called the body of Christ.3 And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.
John 17:3
Jesus is our salvation
This shows how confused the Unitarians are about the plan and work of salvation of God. The Unitarian holds to an over-simplistic hyper-literalist reading of scripture that misses the love and nuances reflected in God's gift to humanity. It is too bad that this simplistic hyper-literalist misconception of scripture has so greatly overtaken some people's conception of scripture that they cannot properly behold the love of God.
I missed this. The Unitarian heresy examines the passages about the divinity of Christ within a modalist heresy instead of a orthodox understanding of the Triune nature of the Godhead. So they appear to jump from one heresy to another while accumulating more destructive doctrines to go alongside their heretical path.Image omitted -- berean-apologetics.community.forum/attachments/1744126722588-jpeg.1695/
I would wonder why reason or logical honest answer to the first question I would present below cannot be applied to the second one;Everything I could find on Thomas...
“My Lord and my God.” A very likely way to understand John 20:28 is that Thomas had realized the power of God working in Jesus, and in saying “my Lord and my God” he was pointing out that Jesus did, in fact, reveal God in a unique and powerful way. In seeing the resurrected Jesus, Thomas clearly saw both the Lord Jesus, and the God who raised Jesus from the dead, and he stated that fact. Jesus always taught that he only did what God guided him to do, and said that if you had seen him you had seen the Father. In that light, there is good evidence that here in John 20:28, “doubting Thomas” was saying that in seeing Jesus he was also seeing the Father.
We have to remember that Thomas’ statement occurred in a moment of surprise and even perhaps shock. Only eight days earlier, Thomas had vehemently denied Jesus’ resurrection even though all the other apostles and disciples, including the women, emphatically stated that they had seen Jesus alive. Thomas could no longer deny that Jesus was alive and that God had raised him from the dead. The Father had worked in Jesus and raised him from the dead. Thomas, looking at the living Jesus, saw both Jesus and the God who raised him from the dead.
When Thomas saw the resurrected Christ, he became immediately convinced that Jesus was raised from the dead. But did he suddenly have a revelation that Jesus was God? That would be totally outside of Thomas’ knowledge and belief. Jesus had never claimed to be God (despite Trinitarian claims that he had) and in fact quite the opposite. From the cross he called out to the Father, “My God, My God” (Matt. 27:46); then after his resurrection he still called God, “my God” (John 20:17).
In the other places in the Bible where the apostles speak about the resurrection of Jesus, they do not declare, “This proves Jesus is God!” Rather, they declare that “God” raised the Lord Jesus from the dead” (Acts 2:24, 32; 3:15; 4:10, 5:30, 10:39-40, 13:30, 33, 37; Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 6:14; 15:15; Gal. 1:1; Col. 2:12; 1 Pet. 1:21). From all those examples we can safely conclude that the apostles, including Thomas, saw God at work in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The apostles understood Jesus’ resurrection to be an act of God, and a demonstration of His power (Eph. 1:19-20).
There are many Trinitarian authorities who admit that there was no knowledge of Trinitarian doctrine at the time Thomas spoke. For example, if the disciples believed that Jesus was “God” in the sense that many Christians do, they would not have “all fled” just a few days before when he was arrested. The confession of the two disciples walking along the road to Emmaus demonstrated the thoughts of Jesus’ followers at the time. Speaking to the resurrected Christ, whom they mistook as just a traveler, they talked about Jesus. They said Jesus “was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God… and [they] crucified him. But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:19-21). The disciples thought Jesus was the Messiah, a “prophet,” and the Son of God, but not God Himself.
Are we to believe that somehow Jesus taught the Trinity, something that went against everything the disciples were taught and believed, but there is no mention of Jesus ever teaching it anywhere, and yet the disciples somehow “got” that teaching? That seems too incredible to believe. There is no evidence from the gospel accounts that Jesus’ disciples believed him to be God, and Thomas, upon seeing the resurrected Christ, was not birthing a new theology in a moment of surprise.
Jesus is the son of God, the Messiah to Israel, and the now resurrected Lord Christ to the Christian who sits at the right hand of God as second in command and is the head of the Church that is called the body of Christ.I would wonder why reason or logical honest answer to the first question I would present below cannot be applied to the second one;
1. Jesus as “Son of man” being the son of a human Mary. Is He man or not?
2. Jesus as “Son of God” for His father is God. Is He God or not? And why?
Yes, Jesus as man as His mother is human, Mary. Right?Jesus is the son of God, the Messiah to Israel, and the now resurrected Lord Christ to the Christian who sits at the right hand of God as second in command and is the head of the Church that is called the body of Christ.
The Arianist tends to be a hyper-literalist based on a single out-of-context verse, namely John 17:3. They exclude the balancing of verse 5 where Jesus shared in that glory (before incarnation as Jesus). Then, they exclude all other evidence of the divinity of Christ in the Godhead. Peterlag, especially, simply denies the divinity of Christ in the Godhead without really debating things.Yes, Jesus as man as His mother is human, Mary. Right?
I wonder why Arians cannot reply with same reason, logical answer as to Jesus being the “Son of God” as His Father is God?
NAS95 render John 1:18 Jesus as the only begotten God supported by the oldest manuscripts, the papyrus 66 and papyrus 75. Other various readings were from later manuscripts.
Jhn 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
Indeed this is a fine example of a hyper-literalist post where the essence of Christ is rejected because the interpreter thinks that scripture cannot be integrated and summarized beyond the surface content of scripture. Worse yet, much of the scripture content and mysteries have to be rejected because they are outside of the hyper-literalist reading.1. Where did Jesus or the apostles ever name the doctrine of the Trinity?
Don’t tell us what later church councils said. Where did Jesus teach it? Where did the apostles explain it?
2. Where did Jesus or the apostles ever describe God as “three persons in one essence”?
Give chapter and verse—no creeds, no analogies, no philosophy. Just show us where they said it.
3. If God is truly three coequal persons, why did Jesus say “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), and “I can do nothing of Myself” (John 5:30)?
Was Jesus lying? Or are you forcing theology into the text?
4. If the Holy Spirit is a third coequal divine person, why does Jesus say the Father will send the Spirit in His name after He prays (John 14:16, 26)?
If the Spirit is fully God, why does He need to be sent? And why does Jesus have to ask?
5. If Jesus is coequal with the Father, why is He called “a man approved by God” (Acts 2:22), and why does Paul say “God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36)?
Are you claiming Jesus was “made Lord” in appearance only? Was His humanity just a shell?
1. If you can show a verse that the apostles also named the Bible as the Scriptures.1. Where did Jesus or the apostles ever name the doctrine of the Trinity?
Don’t tell us what later church councils said. Where did Jesus teach it? Where did the apostles explain it?
2. Where did Jesus or the apostles ever describe God as “three persons in one essence”?
Give chapter and verse—no creeds, no analogies, no philosophy. Just show us where they said it.
3. If God is truly three coequal persons, why did Jesus say “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), and “I can do nothing of Myself” (John 5:30)?
Was Jesus lying? Or are you forcing theology into the text?
4. If the Holy Spirit is a third coequal divine person, why does Jesus say the Father will send the Spirit in His name after He prays (John 14:16, 26)?
If the Spirit is fully God, why does He need to be sent? And why does Jesus have to ask?
5. If Jesus is coequal with the Father, why is He called “a man approved by God” (Acts 2:22), and why does Paul say “God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36)?
Are you claiming Jesus was “made Lord” in appearance only? Was His humanity just a shell?
It is a bit of a bummer that the arguments for the heretical Arian view were not preserved. Maybe the arguments back then had substance instead of the type we see now -- which is just restating the premise and denying the meaning of many passages.View attachment 1893
The life of Jesus, and the subsequent persecution of Christians during the Roman Empire, have come to define what many of us know about early Christianity. The fervent debate, civil strife, and bloody riots as Christianity was coming into being, however, is a side of ancient history rarely described.
Richard E. Rubenstein takes the reader to the streets of fourth-century Rome, when a fateful debate over the divinity of Jesus Christ is being fought. Ruled by a Christian emperor, followers of Jesus no longer fear for the survival of their monotheistic faith. But soon they break into two camps regarding the direction of their worship: Is Jesus the son of God and therefore not the same as God? Or is Jesus precisely God on Earth and therefore equal to Him?
With thorough historical, religious, and social research, Rubenstein vividly recreates one of the most critical moments in the history of religion.
I would imagine that the anti-Trinity views back then were not much different than they are today.It is a bit of a bummer that the arguments for the heretical Arian view were not preserved. Maybe the arguments back then had substance instead of the type we see now -- which is just restating the premise and denying the meaning of many passages.