Now you’re no longer a skeptic but an “unbiased onlooker”?
You really do have a sense of humor Blu.
If skepticism is a bias, it's a bias if favor of discovering what's true in reality by carefully examining the evidence and impartially reasoning from it.
That of course is not what faith does,
It certainly a "mystery in the strict sense". What was not revealed in the Old was revealed in the New Testament and its still a mystery to you.
. No. As I hoped I'd made clear, I'm in complete agreement with the churches ─ it's a mystery in the strict sense, which is the same thing as a nonsense. The difference between you and me is that I know why the churches say that, but you apparently don't.
You appear to attribute little meaning and intention to scripture. It's nonsense to you.
I think it's story, not history, but I also think that like any other ancient document, it deserves the respect of a careful and historically informed understanding.
Nonsense. There was no "retrofitting". The Trinity Doctrine reflected existing scripture. There has been no modification or addition of new scripture.
I'll refrain from a rude retort, and simply observe that we irreconcilably disagree. The documents simply don't say what you want them to say. Instead they flatly contradict you. sic vita.
What part of Jesus’ “dual nature” did you not understand?
I told you earlier ─ the Jesuses of Paul and John were of divine origin, incarnated for a visit to earth because the Father, the only true god, the god they worshiped, had sent them.
Simply ask yourself, is Jesus talking as a man, or is Jesus talking as God?
John's Jesus makes that very plain:
John 5:19 “the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing”
John 5:30 “I can do nothing on my own authority; [...] I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me”
John 8:42 “I proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.”
John 10:29 “My Father [...] is greater than all”.
John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
John 14:10 “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”
which is to say, Jesus has come from heaven as the agent and envoy of the only true god.
I’m trying to think of a polite word, but I’ll just call this nonsense for now. I don’t mind dallying at the crossroad but not to hear tales of "divine semen".
So whence and how did the Jesuses of Matthew and Luke get their Y-chromosome, do you say?
You’ve either can’t see, forgotten, or haven’t read the 160 scriptures stating otherwise. Jesus is Yahweh, the I AM of the Old Testament.
This, from the guy who won't go near ─
John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."
I tried to warn you to steer clear of those danged apologists. They don't care a bean for the facts, only that the everything conform to their predetermined prescription.
Why? Over 1 billion people already believe He is and you have yet to put the words "I am not God" in Jesus' mouth.
If Jesus says that the Father is the only true god, that's close enough for me. It makes it logically impossible for the Trinity doctrine to be correct. So does that fact that Jesus worships the Father.
So you’re argument is that Jesus worships the Father who is not God? Your arguments are really bouncing today Blü.
Nope. I'm pointing to Jesus' plain words, that the Father is the
only true God.
You’re referring to a triune entity. He cannot be sent if He hasn’t already agreed to go.
Which translates as your saying, "the authors of the gospels, not least of John, are repeatedly, inexcusably, stupidly. ignorantly mistaken, as conclusively proved by the fact that they disagree with me." Okay. That's your view and you're sticking to it.
Nonsense, and what a sloppy heresy! Ezekial 18 does not deny we’ve inherited sin from Adam.
First, nothing in the Garden story imputes sin to Adam. The ONLY reason Adam and Eve got kicked out the Garden was, and I quote:
Gen 3:22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"─ 23 therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.
(Those verses do double duty in debunking the claim that at this time death entered the world too. If death didn't already exist, God would have had no motive at all to expel them.)
Second, Ezekiel 18:20 (like the rest of Ezekiel 18) makes it perfectly clear that guilt for sin can't be passed across generations:
20 The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
I think you mean Modalist. It's the only way I see you getting a "Me, Me, why have you forsaken me" from scripture.
As I pointed out, the Jesuses of Mark and Matthew, but not of Luke or John, addressed God, not the Father, when on the cross. But, you say, Jesus IS God, so you picture him talking to himself, and if you're right, 'Me, me, why have I forsaken me?' is a fair rendering of the meaning (another reductio). Oh, and if Jesus is God then Jesus is his own father, since Jesus is the son of God.
Still can't work out what "“And this is eternal life, that they know thee
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” means? It means Jesus once again denies he's God. You'll instantly have noticed that again the word is 'God', not 'the Father'.