RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [RELIGION] swt

["McNutt, Justin M." <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

> I will post some references from Bart Larson's book "Jesus: A biblical 
> defense of his deity" in a little bit.  I just finished reading the 
> section that details that Jesus made absolute claims to be a deity, and 
> not just one or two such claims, but several, nay many.  Just one I 
> remember off the top of my head was the original language where He 
> claimed 'I am', where he used the word Elohim in reference to Himself.
> 
> The thesis of Bart's book was that people will claim that Jesus was a 
> prophet, or a great teacher, or a good moralist.  The truth is, that he 
> unequivocally claimed many times to be God, and that leaves three 
> possibilities: a) He's a madman with delusions (i.e., he had a Jesus 
> Complex *grin*). b) He's a liar on a massive scale, or c) He is what he 
> claims.  That being so, if you do not agree with His claims to be God, 
> then He is neither a prophet or a great teacher, as neither can really 
> be a liar and teacher of false doctrine, or a madman spouting nonsense. 
>   He would be a false prophet, or a disseminator of lies.
> 
> You can't have it both ways, and your statement that He never claimed to 
> be God is absolutely in no way true.

Name the passages.  You say that Jesus(pbuh) claimed to be God, so prove it.

Also, I would suggest that if Jesus(pbuh) WERE to be God, it would render his example and sacrifice meaningless?  If he wasn't a man, why should we try to follow his example?  WE are only men?  Further, if he is God, who is it that he claims to serve so many times?  And what sacrifice is it for him to die?  If he's God, it's no sacrifice.  But if he's a man, it's the ultimate sacrifice, test of faith, and fulfillment of his pledge of obedience.

Finally, if there is a such thing as the trinity, was it merely a duality before Jesus(pbuh)?  It doesn't make any sense.

> I've been meaning to ask for a while, while following this thread... if 
> it is a stricture and measure of respect to follow acknowledgments of 
> certain folks with a respectful phrases asking blessings or such... is 
> there any debate among those in your circles that abbreviating might 
> less than respectful.  I imagine if it were protestant or Catholic 
> Custom to say "Praise Be to the Awesome Jesus Christ", that 
> "PB2TheBigJC" would be frowned upon.   Just curious.  I mean no 
> disrespect.  I'm actually curious about something that occurred to me 
> during the thread.   Thanks.

Yup.  There's a lot of debate about it, and you'll find people with every sort of opinion about it.  My own practices vary on it, though less often than they used to.  I think one could reasonably argue that in this context, those who have been following the thread already know what it means, and so the abbreviation still carries the same weight, and for me, that's sufficient, since for the most part it is MY intention to show proper respect that is the important part anyway.

"For those of you who come in late, we are now having a little cooking session for Blue Note."  ;)

--J

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