Jesus is YHWH, period, not just for all intents/purposes (either He is uncreated Creator/Almighty or He is subordinate creature). This is THE pivotal issue that makes WT cultic, not Christian.
Jesus Is Jehovah/Jehovah Is Jesus
by snowbird 328 Replies latest watchtower bible
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designs
Like Christians aren't a Cult? Young Jewish guy gets stabbed in the chest and God is now satisfied. That's not sick, really?
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godrulz
The gospel is the power of God for those who believe, but it is foolishness for those who are perishing (Rom. 1:16; I Cor. 1:18). If you really understood the issues facing the Moral Governor of the universe in reconciling sinful man to holy God, you would see the love and wisdom and power of God Himself dying for us that we may live. You are a gnat trying to question/understand the infinite.
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designs
Or it could just be the other way around and people who get raised in a Christian religion or those who convert really don't think matters through very well. Hey it happens, Christians voted for George Bush in droves so there is your accounting for good thinking ability down the drain.
......but such an intelligent gnat
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godrulz
Christianity is embraced by some of the greatest intellectuals in history. Either it is objectively true/defensible or it is not. Not everyone thinks things through well, but those who do should end up affirming the biblical worldview, especially the existence of God revealed in Christ.
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EntirelyPossible
Christianity is embraced by some of the greatest intellectuals in history.
And rejected by many more great minds by orders or magnitude.
Either it is objectively true/defensible or it is not.
It isn't.
Not everyone thinks things through well, but those who do should end up affirming the biblical worldview, especially the existence of God revealed in Christ.
Jesus is laughing at you for being so retarded.
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Band on the Run
I find the NT conception of Jesus as other than merely human muddled. The text is not clear. B/c it is not clearly addressed, people can project what they want onto it. Jung would say that this is what makes Jesus so worthy as a God. We can be fuzzy in our thoughts. It strikes me as strange, however, that the people who witnesses Jesus' ministry, esp. his family, never asked questions about his nature. We can hardly be the first people to question it. I know this was the hot topic within one hundred years. Was there an implicit understanding that was not recorded in the Bible. Nothing makes sense the more I think about it.
I am willing to let it go. Major themes are important. Clearly, there is some relationship between YHWH and Jesus. Stephen was stoned for declaring some link that drove the Temple officials right out of their minds. Yet why did so many Jews become Christians if Christ were utter blaspehmy? Was there some pre-existing strand in Hebrew thought that Jesus as deity or Jesus as approaching deity was not so shocking. The more I read and the more I ponder, I am left with questions.
I've studied so much over the years b/c not knowing a definitive answer complements my legal/business brain that demands clear statements. For me, there is more truth in the search than finding an answer. People were prob. perplexed by this in the 1st century. I see myself in a long line of not knowings going back thousands of years.
I don't find the unexalted Jesus compelling. YHWH is most unattractive and unwanted as a god, let alone God. YHWH rejoices in suffering for vengeane's sake. Abraham and Isaac reveals so much of his personality. YHWH has a human personality. God should not. God should have transcedence. YHWH has women raped, children burned. He is utterly despicable. Maybe the Palestinian liberation movement has finally paid off and I am one New Yorker who no longer see ancient Israel as more moral than the people they slaughtered just for being different. Should I feel sorry for them being enslaved in Egypt when they enslaved their own? I no longer do. YHWH's identification with Israel is what keeps Jehovah a national god, unseemly for the international stage.
While Jewish, Jesus travels to other locales. Altho he can be angry and perhaps irrational on occasion, He emphasizes love and forgiveness of sins. Jesus' human form makes him accessible. YHWH is not. I don't view the Bible as a fundamentalist but Job stood out to me even as a child. What right does YHWH have to torture Job and kill his family to engage in a sidebet with Satan. None in my opinion.
I was taught that the Virgin Mary was only the Virgin Mary until about the year 1000 when people thought A. would come. It does seem a more realistic year than 1975. People were so overwrought with fear, they needed a female intercessor so she became Mary as God, the most holy birth giver and other titles. Perhaps Jesus was a way to make YHWH tolerable and decent.
Time for musing is over.
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godrulz
The text is clear (perspicuity of Scripture), but like the Pharisees, there is a spiritual blindess over those who reject the light they have. For hundreds of millions of Christians, the Deity of Christ and Trinity is clear in Scripture (even if all of them cannot adequately explain it to a JW). Many verses and principles point to Jesus being more than a created being, but God Himself. He has the names, titles, attributes of Deity. He receives worship (something reserved for God alone) and honor. He makes claims of equality with God and does His works (Jews get it and want to stone him for blasphemy, but still reject the claim). Fuzziness means you need glasses and the illumination of the Spirit. Don't be like Russell who put reason/rationalism above the revelation of Scripture.
Jn. 1:1 and Jn. 20:28 are sufficient, but there are dozens of others to confirm it. The few Arian verses can be dealt with if one understands (vs straw man) the trinity and incarnation (Jn. 14:28; Rev. 3:14; Col. 1:15; I Cor. 15, etc.).
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EntirelyPossible
The text is clear (perspicuity of Scripture)
The text of the bible is anything but. It makes baby Jesus sad when Christians know so little about the bible and what's in it. Why do you like making baby Jesus sad?
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godrulz
We do not have infallible understanding, but God communicates what we need to know clearly enough (otherwise He is a jerk and could not hold us responsible). The main teaching of Scripture is clear. Obscure verses and debates will not affect one's ability to know God or our destiny. You underestimate the ability to know truth from error.