Two boys. One computer. Me. Sometimes I win, sometimes not :)
I'll just respond to a couple things since I was gone. I did get to watch Deadwood during my loss of the computer, so that was a plus ;)
No, not qualified Tammy. I liked all of what you said.
Then thank you all over again.
Tec: you are essentially taking a JW/Arian position that Christ is not God, but creature, so you have made up your mind.
No, I am not doing this at all. I believe Christ is born of God, not created, and yes, divine... since He is born of God, His Father, who is divine.
You are not hedging your bets by using generic terminology or simple phrases.
God reads hearts, right? Hedging ones bets isn't going to fool Him, so what would be the point?
You either trust Christ as Jehovah or you trust him as a subordinate created being.
Or I trust Christ as the Son of God, as I said above.
To say this is the same Christ is not defensible logically or biblically.
There is only one Christ. Our understandings of Him are different, yes. But HE is the same, regardless of what we think about Him. His teachings are the same as well.
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
I will concede that it does not sound as if we have the same Christ. I can't really say for sure, though. You don't speak about who He is in spirit, or what He wants, believes, loves, teaches... you seem most concerned about defining his nature within the trinity.
If He is God, we need to worship Him as such and it would be wrong to not do so. If He is not God, we should not worship Him and it would be wrong to do so.
Does a father not want his son (someone who he gave all power and authority to and commanded that we listen to) to receive as good a treatment as he would receive? Especially a son who does not abuse this, but hands all authority back to his father?
Just a thought that I have. I do pray about this matter, not yet fully understanding it. With ekception to this: that acts of worship that both the Father and Son would approve of would be loving one another as Christ loved us. But Christ did pray to his father, and he did tell us to love God as the most important commandment.
So, either be a biblical Christian or a cultist. It is either/or, not both/and.
No, thank you, to either one. I choose... Christ - Christian without a qualifier attached. Whether He chooses or accepts me or not is up to Him.
Godrulz, I also never believed that Jesus was Michael. I also never even heard of the trinity doctrine until the jws' presented it (no church growing up). Once they presented it, I scoured the bible searching for it to be true or false. I refused to believe in it on the basis of what man teaches, because men teach wrong all the time. Its why I started a bible study to begin with... I didn't want to be fooled by any organization (yes, I recognize the irony), simply because I didn't know what was actually in the book. I needed the proof - I did not find it. So I stopped trying to force myself to believe it (or not believe it) and chose to believe the simple message that is written - Son of God.
I am not any of the labels that you try to place on me. I am sorry if this confounds you, but it is what it is.
EP - as Syl would say, 'You are a hot mess'.
Peace in Christ,
Tammy
