You are of course free to believe as you please.
I was simply correcting your statement that the NT nowhere says Jesus pre-existed in heaven, or created the material universe. Instead, each of Paul and the author of John make those claims. Meanwhile the authors of Mark, Matthew and Luke give versions of Jesus that are incompatible with them.
Oooh, I’m so sorry… I wasn’t criticising… I thought I was emphasising your points - adding further details.
However, I have a spiritual eraser for writings that contain ‘balanced’ arguments. Justifying wrongdoings is all very well (John and Paul contain pre-existent claims) but indulging them leads to possible acceptance of them - a dangerous premise!!!
In my opinion Paul does not err so much as his writings were CORRUPTED Bible Hub the translators who were demanded to make it appear that Jesus was almighty God and had pre-existed before the ages.
In my opinion there is clear evidence that the relevant quotes are manipulations as they do not read correctly in any linguistically sense. The simple fact that God was alone, created all things BY HIMSELF, dismisses all claims of A-N-OTHER personage CLAIMING HIS GLORY.
Is it not clear to you that Satan must squalor the truth of God so that confusion reigns and ignorance persists, thus keeping unbalanced that which would seek to destroy him.
As for the book of John, it has always been a fascination to me from the very first time I read it. I obtained a booklet which expanded on the Bible text so as to TEST my understanding of what I thought John (of the author of John) was saying. But the more I read the more I comfort to see that there was much corruption in it AND much misinterpretation by those who hung their hat on the hooks of much of its [Trinitarian] claims.
For instance, Jesus WAS NOT CLAIMING TO BE ‘I AM’, GOD!!
The NAME OF GOD is not ‘I AM’, nor does anyone call themself by the DESCRIPTION of their name. Almighty God DESCRIBED himself to Moses (‘I am who/what I am’) and chose a short form of if gif His name (‘I AM’)… But that is not really what is said….
The translators of the scriptures SHOULD NOT HAVE WRITTEN ‘I AM’, but rather, ‘YHWH’ (or whatever Hebrew letters are correct from the Tetragrammaton). The pronunciation WOULD NOG HAVE BEEN ‘I AM’… but correctly ‘however ‘YHWH’ is pronounced, just as the Hebrew name of people is not the description but Hebrew / Greek / Latin / English version - Jesus, for instance, IS NOT CORRECT… it is like ‘YESHUA’ or even ‘JOSHUA’. The point being that ‘YESHUA’ is the name, ‘Rescuer / Saviour / Deliverer’ is the description (its meaning). When in scriptures do we ever read of something like “Rescuer chose 12 disciples…’? No, it is ‘Yeshua chose 12 disciples…’. The name, not the description.
Similarly, PETER translates as ‘The Rock / Little Pebble / Stone’ (of some such). But we do oh go around saying like: ‘The PETER that followed the children of Israel in the wilderness was CHRIST’.
The point? Jesus DID NOT SAY, ‘Before Abraham, GOD’… Why is it believed that Jesus was ‘Calling himself God’? “I AM” IS NOT GOD!!!
The test of this is quite simple… EVERY DAY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD IN ONE LANGUAGE OR ANOTHER SAY IN THEIR UTTERANCES ‘I AM’… are they all or any calling themselves ‘GOD’?
In the very next chapter after the so-called ‘I am’ issue, a man healed of his blindness is asked if he really was blind… he answers, ‘I AM’…. Need I say more?
Who really IS BLIND?
In fact, Jesus was SIMPLY answering the Jews who asked Yeshua (I will say ‘Jesus’ now) if he was greater than their forefather, Abraham. Jesus said… ‘
Yes, I am greater than Abraham’ (paraphrased)… Jesus explained his reasoning saying that Abraham was told by God that the RESCUER would be a Son from his own loins and God showed Abraham the glory of what was to come through him (Saw the glorious day of the messiah) and was glad… So, indeed, he who was to come will be greater than him whom God almighty called ‘Friend’ and set the covenant through him. If the glory of the Covenant holder was mighty, how much more mighty is the glory of him in whom the covenant is fulfilled?
The Jews were so angry that what appeared to be
a young man (not yet fifty years old) could have the audacity to claim greatness above their great ancestor, Abraham. So they took up stones (Peter!!!!?) to (Peter..!!) him!!
Now, it is not the author that made the claim that Jesus was calling himself ‘God’, but rather those who chose to translate it into trinitarian belief. But remember that the writing are GREEK now translated to Latin, and now English. By the time of the writings down of the gospels there were many HELLENISED JEWS amongst the apostles, or at least, those who claim to be Apostles. And what did hellenised Jews believe??? So would it not be natural for them to attempt to make the scriptures fit they’d version of events - at the end of the day, ‘He who
writes the scrolls is greater than he who
spoke the words to go in them’ (So to say!)
And, the worst mis-translation (disingenuous) is John 1:1. This makes out that there were TWO creations:
- The Genesis event in which GOD created the world and all things in it… and
- John’s event in which JESUS created the world and all things in it
Which, taken without discernment, is taken to mean JESUS IS GOD ALMIGHTY.
The watch word for all true believers is ‘Read with discernment’… ‘Reader Beware’ …
carm.org
YUP! Attack the messenger because you can’t address the message